Arizona Bighorn and Mountain Lions
Wild Sheep
I am a little surprised Arizona did not study that potential problem before releasing those sheep. Texas made the same mistake years ago. Did not take long to change the focus on how to best accomplish introduction phase.
Desert sheep met their demise at the hands of early miners and settlers over a century ago. Since the mid-1950s, Az. G&F and the Az. Desert Bighorn Sheep Society have been instrumental in establishing bighorn sheep populations throughout Arizona in their historic ranges.
The last desert bighorns were seen in the Catalina Mtns (directly north of Tucson) in the early 1990's. Believe me, this latest re-introduction into the Catalinas didn't happen without a LOT of prior thought. The kicker to everything was that there are those who would have filed legal suit to block the sheep re-introduction completely if any "pre-treatment" for lions had gone forward --- in other words, there would be no sheep there now at all. Unfortunately there may not be any there by the end of May the way things are going (compromises suck!). I can't help but think some opponents may now see the error in their thinking concerning lions(?). Not a project without MANY angles to negotiate ...
We have a LOT of influence from lion huggers from California. Since they have accomplished their goal of stopping lion hunting in their state, they have nothing better to do than to screw up our state. Incidentally, I don't believe I've ever seen a male member of their group at a G&F meeting. They all seem to be bored housewives who have offered some great ideas at meetings such as:
1. Requiring that the lion be at least a certain age before he can be killed (so hunters would have to "card" the lion). 2. Requiring that the lion be a certain weight (so we would have to catch him live and put him on a scale).
There were also MANY, MANY critics among hunters who were against this sheep transplant, feeling that the amount of human encroachment in the release area and predator factors were not favorable for this particular transplant.
Trial and error equals more sheep. If man had not entered into the picture we may not even have a huntable population today in several areas.
Interesting. So your hands are tied by the cat lovers so the choice is to either don't transplant or transplant even though you know at least the first round at least sacrificial?
That solves a big mystery for me and it makes sense to go ahead and make the transplant. Took a lot of guts to transplant those sheep knowing what was probably going to happen.
Hopefully the end goal is to get some sheep struggling in there to justify getting rid of lions so more sheep can be placed and they can become established.
I'm sending a small donation to AZDBSS to show my support. Good luck!
Good luck.
If The suit SCI has filed to allow lions shot out of California to be brought into the state there will be an increased interest in lion hunting in other states. I know many guys that want to go hunt them.
BTW I'm one and I'm hearing up to go.
AZ Game & Fish just renewed their moratorium on the use of dogs to hunt lions in that area as well. It's one, if not the only area in the state where they won't allow the use of dogs for lion hunting. I'm not sure what the thought process on that was, possibly because they thought that they would bother the sheep more so than the positive effect they would have by removing the lions?
