Wild sheep
Wondering what everyone’s thoughts are on our wild sheep populations.
Do we do enough as Albertans to be advocates to our sheep? Organizations like wsf help? New to the board but it’s been on my mind for awhile Thanks |
I’m not sure what WSF truly does for the sheep?
We have out of control wolf populations in the 400 zones. Trappers that aren’t active or active but not wolf killers. Lions laying a licking on sheep wintering ranges. Fire suppression/lack of prescribed burns. Thankfully we have such a unique situation with all the park boundaries. I have hunted sheep all over Alberta and never once have I thought thanks WSF or what a great opportunity created by WSF. An organization could take 429 ram mountain and run with it. Instead there are a dozen sheep left there for the Indians and lions. |
Our sheep populations could definitely be better.
Pretty Much the same as above post. we may have park boundaries but the wolves and cougars know no boundaries. Also I feel that we need better education on the harvest of mature rams rather than just legal rams. |
Definatly think the WSF is a worthwhile organization to join.
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Not entirely sure what all the Alberta chapter of the wild sheep foundation does in alberta, although I wwould like to get involved with them more. The BC chapter seems to be heavily involved with the province to do prescribed burns, population studies etc.
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Just curious. What is peoples thoughts on improving our sheep populations? Both in numbers and trophy potential How and Why?
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Other than in a few specific wmus, our sheep populations are doing well. Fragile yet tough buggers. Increasing their numbers is probably a bad direction to go. Sheep do not do well at high population densities. Boom then bust. As far as "trophy" potential, if you mean bigger horns, the best way to do this is to increase habitat quality and increase the ewe harvest back to 1980s levels. It is well proven that a 10% ewe harvest leads to a more vigorous population with higher birth rates and larger horned rams. We are now harvesting ewes at around a 1% rate. In this fashion, sheep are kind of like wolves.... |
Numbers are ok, trophy potential is poor but that's what happens when you kill the vast majority of the ram population that reaches 4/5 curl in the province each year. Tough to see any trophy potential when we kill off a large number of the rams of that class. We need a system that lets us have some mature rams make through hunting season each year. Barring that, Alberta is the land of hunting the park borders or praying for a Cadomin draw if you want to kill an older sheep for the most part.
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I think all zones should go to draw ... less people shooting squeakers every year
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Don't just speculate whether WSFA is doing any good. If you care about sheep in Alberta become a member of the organization, and better yet attend our banquet & AGM in Red Deer March 8 - 9. Details at www.wsfab.org
I'm new on the WSFA Board but I walked into a well-oiled machine. WSFA has done more for Alberta sheep than anyone else. Don't forget we don't have management control. All we can do is be strong advocates. We've paid for Arial surveys, push for prescribed burns, help in live captures, have funded predator control measures, and on and on. The passion of sheep hunters in general borders on obsessive, and this Board is no different, we care about sheep. This year's banquet features a "wall of rams" so come check out what this province is capable of producing. It's great you guys are interested in sheep. |
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In my opinion..... a draw will reduce the numbers of sheep hunters every year in a given zone and allow the the sheep trophy quality potential to rise that’s all ... you see that in every draw zone for any species in Alberta .. why would sheep be any different
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If people have want to see more sheep on the mountain why not join a foundation that has the same objective. I’ve never met a group of people more passionate than sheep hunters Sounds like The op has a few good ideas I’m sure they would love to have you aboard |
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First off I feel in general we have very stable sheep numbers our ewe to lamb ratio is excellent. So is our ram to ewe ratio We as hunters need to be very careful. I feel we need to manage for a heathy herd and not for "trophy quality" every ram out there has a momma. Het needs to be carried until birth and supported its first year. To try and only manage trophy quality is very short sighted and does nothing to manage our sheep and frankly shows what some are worried more about horn size and not our wild sheep. If we really want to help our herds its Habitat and reduction in predation. I feel we can do allot of this with prescribed burns and mechanical deforestation. getting rid of forest encroachment on feeding and watering areas will give the sheep the top quality grazing while giving them the buffer they need to be aware of approaching predators. Managing winter grazing habitat is the most important. As Brian has stated Wild Sheep foundation Alberta does allot more in this province than people are aware. We are always going to bat getting prescribed burns off the ground. (govt pending) Trail enhancements We fund trappers who successfully trap wolves in SMA's and the same with registered hounds-men who harvest cougars in SMA's We pay to fly bios for "sheep counts" We are funding disease testing in live capture and hunter harvested sheep We are working with the govt on changes coming to the domestic sheep separation issue. the list goes on and on. Just my 2 cents Matt |
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Im not referring to my "area" nor my own opinion. The Data provided from bios flying SMAs throughout the province say the Ewe to Lamb ratio is doing very well.
Im curious as to what you would call a healthy ratio? as far as collecting your $ for you cougar kill what was the difficult part? what could go better? regards |
Put sheep on draw and manage predators
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Same bullshat every year about this time with the sheep being in dire need of a population boost. There is nothing wrong with the numbers in Alberta and there are still book rams out there you just have to be lucky, but then I guess there are those that think every ram should be a book ram. Here’s one for you there are zones out there that will never carry a book ram because the genetics just aren’t there.
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How does a draw do anything for our wild sheep .
Limiting hunting opertunities does nothing for habitat management and in the long run only manages people |
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If people say nothing has changed with our sheep quality and numbers. They’ve taken to many pulls off the pipe. |
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I agree that something needs to be done on habitat with burns. But that is another joke I won't bother to, get into other than to say we don't do a fraction of what is needed. Predators same thing. |
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anyone of you guys an actual wildlife Bio?
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You do realize that the current regulations are solely for that purpose? And that the current average harvest age for rams is 8? So, what are you advocating for, a legal ram to be 9, 10, 12? Or are you advocating that we eliminate 90% of sheep hunting by going to a draw? Or eliminate 80% of sheep harvest by going to Full curl, which still average 8 years old when killed? |
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