Florida has an enormous variety of game species, ensuring superb hunting experiences! From the forested areas of the Florida Panhandle to the cypress marshes of southwest Florida, Florida offers a plethora of exhilarating wildlife potentials.
With so many choices for deer, gator, turkey, and hog hunting in Florida, you could have unlimited enjoyment and expedition. Numerous folks look forward to the start of the hunting season as the calendar turns towards fall. Florida’s tropical and subtropical climatic condition tends to make it a difficult and fascinating location to hunt.
Other popularly hunted creatures are white-tailed deer, wild hogs, and even alligators, Burmese pythons, and Osceola turkeys. If you want to enjoy the hunting adventures that the Sunshine State has to offer, here are the top 10 wild games to hunt in Florida.
Top 10 Wild Games to Hunt in Florida
Table of Contents
Hogs/Boars/Pigs/Sows
Boars are native to large portions of Eurasia, North Africa, and the Greater Sunda Islands, and are also referred to as wild swine or plainly wild pig. They today live on farms, bushlands, and swamps, and they eat almost anything. They inflict extensive damage on farmlands and wetlands every year.
Wild pigs, also known as feral pigs, are the second most widely hunted mammal in Florida. Note that with the approval of the property owner, you may hunt on private property.
Wild pigs can be hunted all year using any legal firearm, including a rifle, shotgun, crossbow, handgun, javelin, or air gun. There are no size or bag limits, and both male and female animals can be taken down. There is no need for a hunting license to harvest wild hogs.
Green Iguanas
Green iguanas aren’t native to Florida. They are an invasive species in Florida with quite a healthy population that is attempting to ruin native wildlife and impacting negatively on municipal enterprises and residences, particularly in South Florida.
Green iguanas are bothersome not just because they disrupt local habitats, but because they can also trigger damage to infrastructure by drilling burrows that weaken foundations, seawalls, pavements, terracing, and waterway banks.
Alligators or Gators
They are widely recognized to be voracious predators, with some being highly violent; particularly if they have been fed by humans. They may turn into a major inconvenience after they start losing their natural fear of man. A gator’s food consists of smaller animals that are plentiful in Florida.
Baby alligators consume insects, freshwater fish, and other invertebrates. Older alligators consume fish, antelope, felines, dogs, reptiles, turtles, smaller animals, and birds. It is inappropriate in Florida to harm, hurt, seize, or acquire an alligator or its eggs, or to try to do so without obtaining a permit.
Quail Hunting
Quail hunting has long been a conventional game in Florida. In Florida, quail hunting is available throughout the year, but it is most enjoyable in the fall. A savvy guide and specially trained hunting dogs are the most effective method of hunting quails.
Axis Deer
They have always been native to India and Sri Lanka and are also known as the Indian Deer, Spotted Deer, and Chital Deer. The male seems to be about 40 inches tall and weighs around 150 and 250 pounds. A few regard them as being the most gorgeous deer in the universe, and several hunters believe their venison is very much the tastiest of any deer.
The Burmese python
This is a sizable non-venomous constrictor that has become invasive in Florida. Burmese pythons are predominantly reported within and around the Everglades ecosystem in south Florida, where they are a danger to native wildlife.
Pythons can be gunned down on privately owned land at any time with the authorization of the property owner and without a permit, as well as being collected at whatever time of year from Wildlife Management Areas, Public Small Game Hunting Areas, and Wildlife and Environmental Areas where pythons are found in abundance.
Osceola Turkey
They resemble eastern turkeys but are relatively small and deeper in color. They can only be discovered on the Florida peninsula. This turkey is named after the well-known Seminole Chief Osceola. The Sunshine state seems to be the only area in the world where wild Osceola Turkeys can be found.
It is projected that between 85,000 and 110,000 turkeys live on the Florida peninsula. Because of the density and thickness of the woods, marshes, as well as other nearby ecosystems, a precise population estimate is difficult to determine.
Whitetail Deer
They are also known as Virginia deer or white-tailed deer. They are native to North America, Mexico, Central America, Canada, and South America. They normally congregate in fields or pastures during the warmer months. They seek shelter in forested areas to keep cool.
They will take refuge from the cold in forest areas or dense brush during the winter. Males or bucks weigh roughly 150 pounds, while females weigh just around 100 pounds.
Blackbuck Antelope
Since they are reported in India, Nepal, and Pakistan, they are also known as the Indian antelope. They are indeed gorgeous antelopes with something like a brown to blackish brown upper body and white markings on the tummy, underside, hindquarters, and inner surface of their legs.
Their face is black, with white circles under their eyes, all over their ears, and on their chin. Male antelopes tend to weigh around 80-90 pounds with a maximum weight of 125 pounds, whereas females weigh around 65 pounds with a top weight of 75 to 80 pounds.
Fallow Deer
This standard-sized deer has a covering that seems to be yellow-brown with white spots in the summer and grayish brown in the winter. Stotting is a jumping and running method used by Fallow deer to escape or frustrate predators.
According to experts, they are among the few deer species whose spots do not fade after birth. Male Fallows are known to weigh between 135 and 205 pounds when fully grown. Females tend to be much smaller and weigh between 6 and 95 pounds.