Quote:
Originally Posted by Acesneights
Ewe to lamb ratio is healthy. Some giant rams get shot every year. For the last 30 years roughly 2000 sheep tags are sold and 150-200 rams get shot, with loss of a signifigant amount of habitat that has been made into parks. To me this sounds like a very resilant species. A very wise man stated that in the states it is only rich old men who sheep hunt and that the younger generation is not interested in sheep hunting which in turn means they will not be interested in sheep management. Anyone who is in favour of draw really only cares about the trophy on the wall and not actually what is best for bighorn sheep.
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Some big rams do get shot every year, mostly rams that have wandered out of protected areas/parks.
The numbers of rams left over after the season that are 4/5 curl is still very low. Under the goal of the last management plan. Nothing has changed for the better on that front. The number of rams harvested has continued to trend lower for a long time. No improvement there as well.
A blanket statement that those who consider draw or some other means to limit pressure because they only care about hanging a trophy is not accurate. A lot of guys see an issue when the total number of legal ram post season are this poor.
We are not managing sheep in the province in the best interest of the resource in my opinion. What do you think we can do to improve these numbers or does anyone really even care? Are we managing by political pressure from special interest groups to maintain the status quo? We have groups fighting the bios, we have no political will to let fires burn in the mountains, we have no political will to let us poison wolves where needed. Nobody is really doing anything to improve the situation other than token efforts that don't add up to a hell of a lot.
http://aep.alberta.ca/fish-wildlife/...y-reports.aspx