North Dakota Closes Sheep Hunting
Wild Sheep
Contributors to this thread:
Not good news to hear this.
"For the first time in over 30 years, North Dakota will not have a bighorn sheep hunting season. A devastating outbreak of bacterial pneumonia killed approximately 30 to 40 percent of the North Dakota bighorn sheep herd in 2014. The loss, which totaled at least 100 animals, compelled the state to cancel the 2015 bighorn hunting season. The North Dakota Game and Fish Department reported most of the sheep lost were mature rams. Department Chief Jeb Williams noted the disease could have a long- term impact on the sheep population. It could kill even more animals, and it could potentially require a 10-year population recovery time".
Sad. Seems pneumonia is always the culprit. It will defiantly be a long recovery process.
North Dakota has had a real run of bad luck the last few years. The antelope winter kill and the deer die off...now this.
Yep. Really sucks. Sad deal.
Extremes of ND keep animals numbers in check and human numbers also
This was more of a case of "stupidity" rather than extremes.
I initially heard about this in January and have been sick about it since.
Domestic sheep are the culprit. Sad.
It's a shame the federal government leases grazing permits in wildlife-sensitive public lands at rates a lot lower than are charged to graze stock on private lands. Subsidizing a handful of ranchers at the expense of the public's wildlife.
Yeah I know...shut up unless you want to pay more for your T-bone steak. I don't mind paying more for my steak if it helps protect wildlife and gets livestock out of some of these sensitive areas.
kota-man, Can you explain the stupid part? We have the same thing happen down here in SD occasionally and it just seems like one ewe that strays or wanders onto a farm with domestics and takes the disease back to the herd. I'm not familiar with what happened up there so please elaborate.
Basically, the areas that have wild sheep have a "buffer zone" to keep domestic sheep separate. Couple miles wide I believe. A ranch hand took some domestic sheep to the wrong spot, right through the buffer zone, and now there's another pneumonia outbreak.
Supposedly an accident, but it was really stupid. The buffer zone is there for this exact reason.
I think the "buffer" zone was supposed to be 10 miles wide.
LTG11 basically nailed with the exception of the buffer zone which I believe is supposed to be 10 miles wide. Simply put a ranch hand put domestic sheep somewhere he wasn't supposed to killing many years of blood, sweat and tears of building a bighorn herd that was doing VERY well. In a matter of a couple months it was all gone.
Thanks for the correction. I didn't know the exact number of miles.
Does anybody think that these domestic sheep ranchers are doing this on purpose? I have no idea and I don't want to make accusations without any basis, but this seems to happen over and over.
It's not that complicated.
Very sad deal for sure.
Is there a future plan to re-introduce bighorns into this area of ND? Stay the fight?
Mark
LTG11 - I don't think this was anything intentional. In fact the Rancher had agreed to help.
Mark - No plans now for re-intro until the sickness runs its course. Projections are that we've been set back a minimum of 10 years.
Yeah, That does suck. Sorry about your luck. I hunted mule deer up there several years ago and thought it was real cool to see the sheep. It's crazy how fast a herd can be wiped out. Shame after all the hard work that got them there.
I know its easy to blame domestic sheep for all the bighorns trouble and people readily jump on the band wagon. I live in the best unit where the governors tag was harvested this year, in my lifetime we have been through three die offs. There are no domestic sheep in this valley and hasn't been for over ten years. There haven't been any graze on public lands around here for sixty years or so, yet the sheep still seem to get sick. I talked to the biologist and there is only going to be one ram tag again this year after being closed for a number of years. I am seeing sheep in large numbers, the fact is mt fish and game tries to horde these sheep, they get overpopulated and get sick. Why cant we harvest more sheep and keep the numbers down so they don't congregate so much! I will never hunt sheep in my lifetime and neither will most of you. If I ran my cattle like they take care of the sheep I would be bankrupt. Just my opinion, take it for the penny its worth.
Interesting thoughts snareman. I can see your point. Why watch them die off while you're waiting for a once in a lifetime tag? Let's see where this discussion goes.