Mark your calendar – season dates for 2023-2024 are set, including:

• Dove: 9/1 all zones, including South Zone's Special White-winged Dove Days 
• Teal: 9/9
• Archery: 9/30
• Quail: 10/28
• White-tailed deer: 11/4
• Rio Grande turkey: 11/4

Access all new season dates and regulations in the Outdoor Annual online or in the free app beginning Aug. 15. If you already have the app, it auto-updates in mid-August (requires internet access). Once the app is updated, you can access it in the field without an internet connection. Make you life easier, get the Outdoor Annual app. 

Wild pigs, feral hogs and wild boars refer to the same species in Texas. Any pure wild boar strains (none were native) disappeared due to cross-breeding with hogs Spanish explorers brought with them. 

Today there is a large population of feral hogs across the state. They're considered a destructive nuisance, so they can be taken any time of year and there's no bag limit.

A license is required to hunt feral pigs on public lands. But landowners and their agents don't need a license to hunt them on the landowner's property, if hogs are doing damage. 

5 reasons to start planning your feral hog hunt: 

1. Challenging quarry
2. You can hunt them anytime
3. No bag limit
4. They're a problem and need to be removed 
5. Good on the table – check out our video Going Hog Wild 

For tips on hunting hogs, see the Texas Park & Wildlife magazine story Hog Wild, by Hunter Education Coordinator Steve Hall.

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a fatal neurological disease that affects white-tailed deer, mule deer and elk in some parts of Texas. 

This year CWD was discovered in a free-range deer in Bexar County for the first time; it was also found in deer breeding facilities in Sutton, Zavala, Washington, Gonzales, Frio and Hamilton counties for the first time. Find out more about recent detection from our press releases. 

We are working together with Texas Animal Health Commission to determine the extent of the disease within the facilities, and to evaluate risks to Texas’ free-range deer populations.

CWD poses great risks to our native deer populations, both captive and free-range alike. We are doing all we can to arrest the further spread of this disease, including running an extensive ad campaign this summer to create more CWD awareness among hunters and the general public. 

If you harvest white-tailed deer, mule deer or elk within a designated CWD Zone, you're required to bring them to a check station within 48 hours. This allows us to take a sample of the animal and test it for CWD. Protect Texas Deer. Learn the Facts about CWD.

If you know an adult that's interested in hunting, there are a number of mentored hunting workshops for adults in Texas. 

Texas Wildlife Association (TWA) offers an Adult Learn to Hunt program, which is focused on novice adult hunters interested in conservation hunting and sustainable food sources. If you'd like to share your hunting knowledge, contact them about becoming a volunteer hunt mentor.

If you know someone who would like to learn to hunt, let them know about these programs and help keep our hunting tradition alive for generations to come.

For a first-hand look at the adult experience, see our video A Mentored Hunt.