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Service Establishes Faster, Smarter Framework for Migratory Game Bird Hunting Seasons
Press Release
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Establishes Faster, Smarter Framework for Migratory Game Bird Hunting Seasons
Modernized approach cuts red tape, strengthens state and tribal authority, and gives hunters more certainty
Jun 25, 2026
Media Contacts
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced regulations to modernize how seasonal migratory game bird hunting is authorized nationwide, cutting unnecessary federal red tape while giving states, tribes and hunters earlier certainty and greater flexibility. The Service is publishing both a proposed rule and a direct to final rule to ensure that the September 1st hunting deadline is not impacted.
The changes align with President Donald J. Trump’s commitment to streamlining government, reducing regulatory burden, and protecting America’s hunting traditions while maintaining strong conservation.
With the changes, the Service will move away from duplicative annual rulemaking and adopt a more efficient framework that allows hunting seasons to be authorized earlier and with fewer procedural delays. The result is a faster, more predictable process that supports conservation while respecting state and tribal wildlife management expertise.
“President Trump has made it clear that our hunting heritage and our public lands must be managed with both conservation and access in mind,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik. “This new process will make it easier for states and tribes to plan hunting seasons, give hunters more time to prepare, and continues to ensure decisions are based on sound science and up-to-date habitat and population data. It also cuts costs and reduces government waste.”
Key improvements under the regulations include:
- Ending the need for repetitive annual federal rulemaking for migratory bird hunting seasons, significantly reducing regulatory complexity. Earlier authorization of hunting seasons to allow states, tribes and the public more time to plan.
- Cost savings and reduced federal staff workload, which makes government more efficient and responsive.
- Stronger coordination with state and tribal partners to ensure local priorities are front and center in wildlife management decisions.
The notice is available at http://www.regulations.gov, Docket Number: FWS-HQ-MB-2024-0206 and includes complete details on the updates.
Migratory game bird hunting regulations are a cornerstone of sound wildlife conservation by providing opportunities for both recreation and sustenance. These regulations enable sustainable harvest levels consistent with migratory bird population health and habitat conditions while meeting legal obligations under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Administrative Procedures Act.
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Letter: With no bear hunt, population problems will spiral
By Sal GeraciJune 26, 2026
Discussing the controversy on whether to have an open season on hunting bears in Connecticut is a waste of time. It is going to happen, just like when the overpopulation of deer became a problem for farmers and motorists. On a personal level, I kind of like seeing the bears that cross our property; just like deer, bobcats and other wildlife. We took down our bird feeders. Basically, “They don’t bother me, if they don’t bother me.”
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But I do understand those who have issues with aggressive bears that pose a danger to people. It makes no sense to oppose killing bears because they are cute makes. Bessie the cow; Lily the lamb and Porky the pig are cute too, but who cares when ordering a steak, leg of lamb or pork chop? And the argument that they were here first and humans are the problem only sounds good until you realize that Native Americans were here first and it seems to me that we had no problem killing them and taking their land. That’s what humans do. It is happening right now in Ukraine.
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Of course there isn’t a solution that will please everyone, but waiting until a hungry bear kills a human, or waiting until “car vs. bear” accidents pile up makes even less sense. Why not come up with a plan that works without starting a bear-killing frenzy? Maybe a lottery system where only so many bear-hunting licenses are issued. Also, maybe 50% of the meat must be donated to homeless food shelters. In this manner, maybe the “save the bear” crowd will see that some good will come out of it. Sitting around or writing editorials as the bear population increases while their urban food sources deplete is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Doing nothing is long past being an option.
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To digress for a moment on bears, on a global level it has been reported that the Trump administration plans to give Iran funds to buy food from American farmers. If it is true (and I am not sure it is), why not give the money to the American farmers and ship Iran the food? Sending money to a corrupt government to purchase food makes no sense. They can stuff the money into their pockets, but they won’t do it with a loaf of bread or broccoli. Just wondering.
Sal Geraci
Woodbury
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H5N1 bird flu has reached every continent. How worried should you be?
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Get insights on Asia’s fast-moving developments
Scientists have become increasingly concerned about H5N1 because the virus is now circulating in an unprecedented range of bird and mammal species.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Published Jun 25, 2026, 03:10 PM
Updated Jun 25, 2026, 04:54 PMSet as preferred sourceListen
SYDNEY – A strain of avian influenza known as H5N1 has proved alarmingly adept at jumping continents and species.
First identified in farmed geese in southern China in 1996, the virus has periodically spread from birds to people and other animals.
But the version that has most worried scientists in recent years is clade 2.3.4.4b, an H5N1 strain that has spread globally through wild birds, devastating poultry flocks and infecting more than 50 species of mammals.
Australia had been the last continent without a confirmed H5N1 detection. That changed in June, when the authorities found the virus in a seabird near the town of Esperance in Western Australia.
The discovery is raising alarm about the potential threat to Australia’s native birds and other wildlife, as well as to poultry and cattle farms.
Scientists around the world are also watching closely for signs the virus is adapting further to mammals, a development that could increase the risk of transmission to and among humans.
For now, the health authorities say the risk to the general public, both in Australia and globally, remains low.
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What is H5N1 bird flu?
H5N1 is a subtype of the influenza A virus.
The strain now drawing global attention belongs to a lineage known as clade 2.3.4.4b, which emerged in Europe around 2020 and has since spread across Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Antarctica.
Unlike earlier outbreaks that were largely confined to poultry and waterfowl, the current strain – which spreads through bodily fluids such as saliva and faeces – has become established in more than 100 wild bird species, allowing it to spread over thousands of miles through migration.
It has also infected dozens of mammalian species, including foxes, seals, sea lions, cats, dogs and dairy cattle.
How did the virus get to Australia?
Australia had been the only continent free of the H5N1 strain.
That changed when the authorities confirmed the virus in a brown skua, a large predatory seabird, in Western Australia’s Cape Le Grand National Park.
Because brown skuas breed on sub-Antarctic islands and migrate across the Southern Ocean, scientists believe a migratory bird may have carried the virus thousands of kilometres to Australia.
Within days of the initial detection, the authorities confirmed H5N1 in a Southern Giant Petrel in South Australia, about 1,450km east of the initial case, suggesting that the virus may already be more widely distributed than first thought.
Why are scientists worried?
Scientists have become increasingly concerned about H5N1 because the virus is now circulating in an unprecedented range of bird and mammal species.
Researchers grew more alarmed in 2024 after H5N1 spread through US dairy cattle, infected dairy workers, and was found at high concentrations in raw milk.
Although most infected workers experienced only mild illness the outbreak showed the virus could become established in a mammalian species previously thought unlikely to play a role in influenza transmission.
Although there is currently no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission of H5N1, each new infection gives the virus another opportunity to mutate or reassort with other influenza viruses, increasing the chances that it could eventually acquire the ability to spread efficiently among people.
How dangerous is H5N1 for humans?
Human infections remain uncommon and are usually linked to close contact with infected birds, poultry, dairy cattle or contaminated environments.
Symptoms range from conjunctivitis, or pink eye, and mild respiratory illness to severe pneumonia and respiratory failure.
The severity of illness has varied considerably.
Most infections detected during the recent US dairy outbreak were mild, often involving conjunctivitis.
However, severe and fatal infections continue to be reported elsewhere, particularly following exposure to infected poultry.
Unlike seasonal flu viruses, H5N1 does not readily bind to the predominant receptors in the human upper respiratory tract.
That makes it more difficult for the virus to infect people and helps explain why sustained human-to-human transmission has not occurred.
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Is there a treatment or vaccine?
Antiviral drugs such as oseltamivir, sold as Tamiflu, can be used to treat H5N1 infections in humans. Countries, including Australia, also maintain pandemic influenza preparedness plans that include stockpiles of antiviral drugs and access to H5 vaccines or vaccine candidates that could be deployed if the risk to people increased.
These vaccines are intended for emergency use and are not part of routine immunisation programmes.
Separate vaccines are also used in poultry in some countries to help control outbreaks, although their use varies because vaccinations can make outbreaks harder to detect and complicate international trade.
What is the risk to Australia?
As elsewhere in the world, the immediate concern for Australia is wildlife and agriculture rather than widespread human illness.
Scientists are particularly concerned the virus could threaten Australia’s seabird colonies, fur seals, sea lions and already-endangered species.
Backyard poultry and flocks on commercial farms are also vulnerable.
Elsewhere, H5N1 has caused mass mortality events among seabirds and marine mammals and led to the culling of hundreds of millions of poultry.
These outbreaks have disrupted food supplies, pushed up prices and triggered trade restrictions.
In 2025, for example, a single outbreak at a commercial poultry farm in Brazil – the world’s largest chicken exporter – prompted months-long import bans by major buyers including China and the European Union, threatening more than US$4 billion (S$5.2 billion) in annual export sales and raising concerns about global chicken supplies.
If the virus were to be detected in commercial poultry in Australia, the authorities could impose movement restrictions, quarantine affected properties and cull infected flocks under nationally agreed emergency response plans.
The authorities are urging people not to touch sick or dead birds or marine mammals and to report them through Australia’s Emergency Animal Disease Hotline.
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What happens next?
Scientists are sequencing the virus to determine its origin and how closely it is related to H5N1 strains circulating elsewhere, particularly in the Southern Ocean.
The authorities are expanding surveillance of wild birds and poultry while tracing additional cases to determine whether the virus remains confined to wildlife or has spread more widely.
Australia has spent several years preparing for H5N1’s arrival, investing more than A$113 million (S$101 million) in surveillance, biodiversity protection, laboratory capacity and pandemic preparedness, while establishing a national taskforce involving agriculture, environment, public health and emergency management agencies.
The authorities could also issue housing orders requiring free-range poultry in Western Australia to be kept indoors.
The poultry industry has also tightened its own biosecurity measures.
Ingham’s Group, Australia’s largest poultry producer, has placed its Western Australian farms and processing operations under heightened biosecurity, including a lockdown preventing all non-essential access.
The company said there have been no detections in its operations or supply chain and it continues to supply the Australian market as usual. BLOOMBERG
H5N1 bird flu has reached every continent. How worried should you be? | The Straits Times
Crackdown on snares in Sumatra as elephant, sun bear and tiger rescued
25 Jun 2026Asia
Crackdown on snares in Sumatra as elephant, sun bear and tiger rescued
- In May and June this year, animal rescuers with Indonesia’s state conservation agency, the BKSDA, rescued a Sumatran tiger, a Sumatran elephant and a sun bear in separate incidents after the animals were caught in snares.
- Farmers set snares to catch wild boar, which are regarded as a pest to crops, but tiger poachers are also believed to use them to trap critically endangered Sumatran tigers for the illegal wildlife trade.
- After recent rescues, the conservation agency published a letter stating that authorities consider the snare to be potentially unlawful and telling farmers to remove any existing snares.
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PADANG, Indonesia — Authorities in a stronghold for Sumatran tigers have warned the public against using snares to trap wild boar following the dramatic rescue of an 11-month old female tiger cub last month.
While it is not illegal to set a snare for the purpose of trapping wild boar or animals that are not protected by law, the West Sumatra government said any protected species caught in a snare will now lead to criminal liability.
The new clarification was set out in a letter issued in late May by the West Sumatra province office of Indonesia’s conservation agency, the BKSDA. It cites a 2024 amendment to Indonesia’s 1990 conservation law governing the protection of wildlife.
“The situation has become dangerous because people are setting these snares,” explained Rizaldi, a conservation scientist at Andalas University in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province.
Renewed attention on snares
The recent crackdown on snares was sparked after a Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) was discovered in a wild boar snare in Padang Mantiggi Utara village located in West Sumatra’s Pasaman district.
Officials from the West Sumatra BKSDA, the conservation agency, arrived at the scene at around 13:30 on May 21, where they found a young female tiger in distress and pain. A snare was wrapped around the animal’s neck, trunk and right foreleg, in about five loops.
“She struggled for a while and began groaning back and forth,” said Edi Susilo, the BKSDA lead in Pasaman district.
The animal was sedated and evacuated to a center operated by the conservation agency.
“For those [snares] already installed, take them down straight away because they pose risks to protected tigers and sun bears and others,” the BKSDA’s Ade Putra said.
Since the letter was issued in late May, rescuers have freed a female sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) in West Sumatra and an elephant calf (Elephas maximus sumatranus) in neighboring Jambi province, which were both found injured in snares in mid-June.
BKDSA’s Susilo said a team from the agency, the Centre for Orangutan Protection and veterinarians from the Pasaman district agriculture department sedated and evacuated the injured sun bear for treatment on June 19 after receiving a report from the community in Panti, an area of Pasaman district.
In the neighboring Sumatran province of Jambi, rescuers freed a young elephant cub caught in a snare — reportedly for as long as two weeks — on land used to produce palm oil operated by PT Lestari Asri Jaya (LAJ), a subsidiary of France’s Michelin.
To the rescue
The West Sumatra province office of Indonesia’s state conservation agency has recorded four tigers caught in snares in the last four years, two of which died as a result of their injuries.
Researchers from Indonesia and the Memphis Zoological Society reported in a 2023 study on tiger snaring in Aceh and North Sumatra, two provinces that together contain a large share of Sumatra’s remaining tiger habitat.
From 2008-2023, the researchers documented 28 confirmed incidents of tigers caught in snares. Nine of these tigers died, while eight others suffered injuries requiring permanent captivity.
Sumatran tigers with disabling injuries are often not released back into the wild as physical impairment can leave them unable to hunt their usual prey. If released, they may resort to fast food sources such as livestock near local settlements, elevating the risk of conflict with humans.
The 28 confirmed cases of tigers caught in snares is a minimum figure only in the two provinces studied, as it does not include tigers successfully trapped by poachers, or cases where the tiger was caught inadvertently and not reported.
Snare tactics
Efforts by conservation authorities to restrict the use of snares are complicated by challenging topography and hard-to-reach communities in the Barisan mountain range, home to much of Sumatra’s remaining tiger habitat.
In at least one tiger habitat accessible only by boat, residents living inside a protected forest have previously clashed with conservation officials.
Snares remain the easiest tool for farmers to trap wild boar, which can trample and uproot crops, potentially ruining an entire harvest.
“Snares can be made from any material, they’re easy to make, and are inexpensive compared to homemade weapons or traps,” said Dwi Nugroho Adhiasto, an advisor with the Science for Endangered and Trafficked Species Foundation (SCENTS). “They can also can be installed en masse using a range of methods.”
But that simplicity makes snares a serious threat to tigers and other wildlife across Sumatra and the wider Southeast Asia region because they are indiscriminate, said ecologist Sunarto.
“It’s no surprise that these various studies have shown snares are one of the causes of extinction or drastic declines in wildlife populations, particularly in Southeast Asia,” Sunarto said.
Tiger conservationist Erlinda C. Kartika said human-tiger interactions in West Sumatra has also been driven by habitat loss, dwindling prey and landslides that may have disrupted tiger movement.
The IUCN, the global wildlife authority, estimates fewer than 600 Sumatran tigers remain in the wild, underscoring how snares pose a critical threat to the survival of the world’s rarest tiger subspecies.
“Together with law enforcement officers we will conduct patrols and enforcement operations, confiscate illegal snares, and enforce the law against perpetrators,” said the BKSDA’s Ade.
Banner image: A Sumatran tiger, estimated to be 11 months old, was caught in a snare in Rao Utara district, Pasaman Regency, May 21, 2026. Image courtesy of BKSDA West Sumatra.
This story was first published here and here in Indonesian on May 24 and June 8, 2026.https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indonesia-driver-sentenced-over-organized-crime-group-trafficking-live-orangutan/embed/#?secret=lsG9kdQEqP#?secret=pjpt6nzX1p https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/investigators-eye-organized-crime-links-in-3-ton-pangolin-scale-haul-at-jakarta-port/embed/#?secret=vgTefCnxME#?secret=scJVr5Bfv6
Citation:
Figel, J.J., Safriansyah, R., Baabud, S.F. & Herman, Z. (2023). Snaring in a stronghold: Poaching and bycatch of critically endangered tigers in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Biological Conservation, 286, 110274. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110274
Exposing the Big Game 