Skip to main content

Small game management

Table of contents

  • Small game regs home page and glossary of terms

    Small game management

    • Managing small game in Michigan

    Season dates and bag limits

    • Small game hunting season dates
    • Year-round hunting and trapping seasons
    • Mitigating damage caused by wildlife
    • Pheasant management units
    • Sharp-tailed grouse management unit
    • Bag limits

    License types and fees

    • License types and fees by age
    • Hunter education
    • Mentored hunting
    • Apprentice hunting
    • Hunters with disabilities
    • Michigan residents
    • Michigan veterans with disabilities
    • U.S. military personnel
    • Treaty-authorized hunters
    • DNR Sportcard
    • Hunt/fish combo license
    • Base license
    • Pheasant license
    • Harvest Information Program
    • Woodcock stamp
    • Pure Michigan Hunt

    Purchasing licenses and stamps

    • Identification requirements
    • Where to buy licenses and stamps
    • Lost licenses and stamps

    When and where to hunt

    • Hunting hours
    • Hunting and trapping zones
    • Limited firearms deer zone
    • Safety zones
    • Public lands
    • State parks and recreation areas
    • National wildlife refuges
    • National forest lands
    • Commercial Forest lands
    • Hunting Access Program
    • Local municipalities
    • Waterways
    • Rights of way
    • Trespassing

    Equipment regulations

    • Hunter orange
    • Elevated platforms and ground blinds
    • Transporting bows, crossbows and firearms
    • Artificial lights
    • Off-road vehicles and snowmobiles

    Hunting methods

    • Falconry
    • Training dogs on game animals
    • Hunting with dogs
    • Wolf-dog conflicts
    • Commercial hunting guides

    Wildlife diseases

    • Sick wildlife reporting
    • Avian influenza
    • Rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus 2
    • West Nile virus

    Invasive species

    • Russian boar

    After the harvest

    • Drones and recovering game animals
    • Transporting game animals
    • Migratory bird band reporting
    • Handling and processing small game meat
    • Buying and selling game animals

    Report all poaching

Managing small game in Michigan

Michigan has 11 species of small game that can be harvested using hunting methods. In Michigan, small game species include bobwhite quail, cottontail rabbit, crow, ground squirrel (including chipmunk), ring-necked pheasant, ruffed grouse, sharp-tailed grouse, snowshoe hare, squirrel (fox, gray and red), woodchuck and woodcock. Woodcock and crows are considered migratory game birds. For more information on small game management in Michigan, visit Michigan.gov/SmallGame.