Recommended Tag Numbers Posted
Colorado
Recommended tag numbers posted. I would assume these will be best case scenario with a chance of them cutting more before draw. Glad they made some cuts but doesn’t seem like enough cuts in some units. Wish they would come up with a max quota for OTC per unit this year.
Above link is per DAU.
This link is per Unit.
Cow tag recommendations for some of the NW units is a cut as much as 90%, from 2500 to 250. The tag covers about 10 units right in the heart of the hard hit area. Makes you wonder if the winter kill is even worse that they have been saying.
Or maybe just making sure plenty of wolf feed
Ever since they blew up the numbers of cow tags in the NW units, the overall elk population is less than half of what it was in 2005. Maybe they decided it's time to bring the numbers back up.
Interesting. Thanks for posting. Looks like they will issue 3450 tags for newly limited DAU E14 (Units 41,42,421,521). Does anyone have a feel for what that means? Hard to tell when no one really knows how many were hunting those units when they were OTC.
Living at ground zero of the NWCO winter from hell I can tell you the winter kill was serious. It was sad to watch the elk slowly starve to death on my drive to work as the winter wore on. Countless more deer, elk, and pronghorns were hit by vehicles along the highways and county roads. I heard second hand that a DOW guy estimate 50% of the pronghorn in some units were lost. I hope someone got their wires crossed somehow with that rumor because with the predation we have up here, it will take many years to bounce back.
Nock - probably means there will be 1000-2000 leftover tags ;-)
For NW elk, DAU-2, the numbers that jump out at me are the post hunt estimates/projections:
2021 -24,060
2022- 15,359
2023- 9,454
and the post hunt sex ratios:
2021 -25
2022- 23
2023- 2
Those numbers are quite alarming!
Many of the elk in the hardest hit areas summer in OTC units and don't leave well into the season. Do you all think these tag reductions will matter as much with unlimited hunting in the OTC areas.
DAU 55 modeled ratio is -32?. They must be eating in the barley fields grown for making Bud Light.
2023 May
2023 May
Something about that DAU 2 data seems odd to me. I am going to post up the population data from May of 22 and then May of 23.
I get classification happens post hunt. I would assume on winter ground. I would think elk would be easier to find in a bad winter, so you would think they would classify more animals yet last May they show they show they classified 9629 elk. This year with deep snow they only classify 5400 elk?
In 2020 the population estimate was 18,300, then in 21 it was 24,000 animals, projected to go to 25k. 6,000 more elk in one year. huh. Now this year they say 22 was really 15,359? and 23 is projected at 9454 post hunt? Is it just me or really wierd? We are missing 10,000 elk in 22, and now moving to even lower?
I get calf loss, I get hit by cars, but how do you go from 20 some bulls to 2? Bulls usually hang out by themselves in winter, did they miss counting some? I would expect bulls to have a higher survival rate? With 2 bulls per 100 hundred cows, they will be dead from exhaustion after the rut this year.
Is it just me or do these numbers seem odd? I'm guessing someone is going to propose limiting all seasons in the NW and this is the means to propose it and get no pushback.
A negative ratio?, Must be new math? Maybe they used one of those fancy AI programs to write this report?
Grasshopper, That 10,000 loss between 2021 and 2022 is definitely a mystery. And if that 2 sex ratio is correct there will be some happy spike herd bulls.
There's some obvious errors in the report. Just look at the reported 2021-2022 % change for bear permits issued. Goofy percentages. Total permits sold 2021= 33,402, total sold 2022= 33,284, % change -30%!!!
It doesn't boost my confidence in how my wildlife is being managed.
