Quote:
Originally Posted by walking buffalo
What evidence are you basing the claim of "skewed dynamics" on?
According to f&w, the average age of harvested rams is increasing.
Assuming your conjecture of skewed dynamics is correct. ....
Explain how licenced hunting could be responsible for the problem when sheep populations have been stable to increasing for the last thirty years and licenced harvest has remained relatively stable.
If you cannot show that licenced hunting is the problem, then how will reducing licenced harvest solve the problem?
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I have no argument with the size of the population. It is stable. My argument is with the age class of ram we are targeting. What is the age class of the average ram taken in Alberta, 7.5 yrs? In other words the majority of the Rams harvested are Class 3 rams, rams 5-8 years old and we have virtually no class 4 Rams left in the population, certainly not at an optimum percentage of the male population. That is a skewed population dynamic in the ram herd.
We should have a much larger number of class 4 Rams in the population. How do we do that? Stop killing all the 5-8 year old Rams like we are now. By what means? Put it all on draw? Increasing horn curl from 4/5 to full curl? A combination. Something needs to change.