How Hunting Licenses Work?

You've waited for this day all year long. Yo­u've cleaned your gun and spent countless hours reminiscing about last season with your hunting buddies. This year's going to be the year, you're sure of it you will get the big gam you want. If there were no limits on how many of a specific species could be harvested in a year, an entire species could be wiped out by overzealous hunters who have been waiting all year to get out their guns.They assign licenses to these categories and sell them for a wide range of prices to waiting hunters. Once the licenses for a certain species are sold out, the hunters who were unable to purchase them have to wait until the next appropriate season. Hunting without a license is considered poaching.
While licenses depend greatly on the local species, here are some common license categories.

• Small game -- pheasant, quail, dove, squirrel
• Large game -- deer, elk, antelope, bighorn sheep
• All game
• Fishing -- depends on the area
• Migratory or game birds -- depends on the area­.

Within those categories there are different types of licenses.  Most states offer licenses to their residents for a discounted price and to nonresidents at full price.

I got the info from the sweb site:http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/outdoor-activities/hunting/regulations/hunting-licenses1.htm