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Outdoors Notebook: Antelope and elk hunting also approved

April 3, 2009

Male and female Mule deer
Image via Wikipedia

The Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission on Wednesday voted to open a black bear hunting season beginning Oct. 1 in four southeastern Oklahoma counties.

The bear season (archery and muzzleloader only) is contingent upon lawmakers passing a black bear hunting license, but commissioners on Wednesday also created two other new hunting seasons that do not need legislative approval.

Bow hunters will get a two-week archery season for antelope in the Panhandle beginning Sept. 14. In northeastern Oklahoma, elk hunting will be allowed on private lands. Read more

Written by fandw08 · Filed Under Breaking News, Hunting 

Missouri deer season dates, urban zones change this fall

March 20, 2009

From the Missouri Department of Conservation

– Hunters planning vacations around Missouri’s firearms deer season should look carefully at 2009 deer hunting seasons approved by the Conservation Commission last year.Red Deer

The structure of Missouri’s firearms deer season has remained relatively stable for several years, starting with an early urban portion, then a youth hunt, followed by the traditional November portion, a portion for hunters using muzzle-loading rifles and then a late antlerless-only portion. During the 2008-2009 season young hunters got the last word with a two-day youth hunt in January. This year the order of the portions is different, and the overall season is four days longer. Read more

Written by fandw08 · Filed Under Hunting 

Bills introduced to change deer hunting

February 25, 2009

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) Several bills have been introduced this legislative session that would make changes to deer hunting in Minnesota. Read more

Written by fandw08 · Filed Under Hunting 

Proposed Rule Clarifies Hunting Rule Changes at National Wildlife Refuges

February 25, 2009

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today published in the Federal Register a proposed rule that modifies language regarding existing hunting programs at 76 national wildlife refuges, including three refuges in the California and Nevada Region. The proposed rule has a 30-day public comment period. The Service hopes to finalize the rule in time for the early winter and early spring 2008-2009 hunting seasons. Read more

Written by fandw08 · Filed Under Hunting, Other News 

Big Game License Auctions A Success

February 14, 2009

moose-in-vegatation1Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Headlines

Montana’s 2009 big game auction licenses drew a total of $263,500 from three auctions held last week at the 32 nd Annual Wild Sheep Foundation Convention and the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo held in Salt Lake City.

The Wild Sheep Foundation auctioned the 2009 bighorn sheep auction license for $245,000, surpassing the 2008 auction by $50,000. The 2009 mountain goat license went for $10,000.

The Mule Deer Foundation auctioned the 2009 mule deer license at the same event for $8,500.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, at its 25 th Annual Elk Camp & Hunting, Fishing and Outdoor Expo set for March 5-8 in Fort Worth, Texas, will auction the 2009 Montana elk license and moose licenses.

At least 90 percent of all auction proceeds go to state management of the species, and the remainder go to the auctioning organization.

News from mt.gov

Written by fandw08 · Filed Under Hunting 

Hunting Tours -Black Bear Hunting In Russia

January 26, 2009

Hunting Tours -Black Bear Hunting In Russia by Alex L.

Big game hunting is all about the trophy animal when a big game hunter is out looking for the record breaking trophy. The size, the length, the weight is all part of who bagged the biggest trophy. Big game hunting is all over the world, Africa for the large big game hunting, United States for the white tail deer, elk, bear, and other big game hunting. New Zealand for big game hunting birds and other animals, Asia and Russia for the black bear hunting. Hunting tours are set up in different countries to help the big game trophy hunter. Read more

Written by fandw08 · Filed Under Hunting 

Minnesota without moose? It could happen

December 10, 2008

A dramatic decrease in the numbers of the iconic symbol points to one major cause.

DULUTH – Is climate change killing off Minnesota’s moose?

That appears to be the case, according to scientists and wildlife managers meeting here to talk about the dramatic decline in the state’s moose population in recent decades. State wildlife biologists estimate the population has dropped 25 to 50 percent in 20 years, with a near-collapse in northwest Minnesota, now estimated to have fewer than 100 moose, down from 4,000 in the mid-1980s.

They said that while disease, parasites, predation and other factors all contribute to moose mortality in northern Minnesota — on the extreme southern fringe of this historic moose range — heat stress from a documented rise in temperatures appears to be the root cause of the decline.

At stake, beyond the animals themselves, is their iconic status as a northern Minnesota symbol and tourist attraction. One needed only cross the street from the hotel hosting the Minnesota Moose Summit Monday to see it: In the Duluth Pack store with its patented symbol — a bull moose. Or the moose carved from a tree trunk Outside Deco Bay Clothing. Or the sign in the window of the Animal Factory, beckoning Christmas shoppers to “stuff” a moose to take home.

Meanwhile, at the summit, which also served as the second meeting of the Minnesota Moose Advisory Committee — a group directed by the Legislature to come up with possible responses to the decline — there was talk of the possibility of a Minnesota without moose by 2050, if present trends continue.

Heat-sensitive animal

“Moose are very heat-sensitive,” said Prof. Rolf Peterson of Michigan Technological University, chair of the 17-member advisory committee, which plans to recommend to the DNR in June how the decline might be slowed and what new research might be needed.

“They’re a 1,000-pound animal, and they’re almost black,” continued Peterson, who has studied the isolated moose population on Lake Superior’s Isle Royale. “They don’t sweat like a horse. They have no terribly effective way of getting rid of heat except by breathing faster.”

The state’s moose population has dropped from as many as 14,000 in the mid-1980s to an estimated 7,700 today, said Dave Schad, the DNR’s division of Fish and Wildlife director. The population in northeast Minnesota has declined an estimated average 6 percent per year since 2002, according to DNR estimates based on surveys from helicopters.

Moose hunting permits have been correspondingly reduced. Since the early 1990s, a hunter lucky enough to get a permit in the DNR’s annual lottery can’t apply again. One possible recommendation of the advisory committee is to discontinue the hunt.

Mark Lenarz, DNR wildlife research group leader, told the group that temperature readings taken at an Ely weather station show that “over the past 48 years, average summer and winter temperatures have increased substantially.” Mean midwinter temperatures in northwest Minnesota, which has fewer of the shade trees and lakes moose need to cool themselves, increased about 11 degrees from 1961 to 2001, a dramatic rise by most climate change measures.

Lenarz cited a study that found that when temperatures go above 23 in the winter and 57 in the summer, moose must expend more energy, through a faster heartbeat and more labored breathing, to maintain a healthy temperature.

No other factor examined — not disease, parasites, starvation, deer density, hunting or predation by wolves — correlates as reliably to the decline as does the rising temperature, Lenarz told the group.

“Because they are weakened, it predisposes them to other measures of mortality,” he said, adding that because they must spend more time seeking shade and cooling off, “it takes away from the time they can actually feed.”

While such a correlation has been observed, he added, “We don’t have a cause and effect. … We need to identify the specific mechanism” by which moose die of heat stress. More research is needed, he said.

Laurie Martinson, a DNR deputy commissioner, said the state is determined to find possible solutions.

“We’re going to set a course that’s proactive and that assures moose will be there for future generations,” Martinson said before Monday’s gathering, which continues today.

However, Peterson, the longtime researcher and advisory committee chair, said it may be too late.

“I don’t know if we can do it,” Peterson said. “We have only a few tools. … We’re not in charge of the weather. Things are just changing very quickly.”

Source: StarTribune.com

Written by fandw08 · Filed Under Environmental News, Hunting 

NH adjusting deer hunt

May 27, 2008

CONCORD, N.H.—New Hampshire hunters won’t have as much time to bag a deer in many parts of the state this fall.

State Fish and Game officials are proposing shorter seasons in 10 of the state’s 18 wildlife management areas. Kent Gustafson, the deer project leader, says the winter hit the deer herds hardest north and east of Concord. He says cutting the season for anterless deer in those areas will mean fewer females will be killed, allowing the herd to rebound.

Gustafson says hunters should be able to get information on the restrictions this summer.

Because of the rough winter, Maine wildlife officials last week reduced the number of permits that will be issued to hunters to shoot antlerless deer during the 2008 season.

Written by fandw08 · Filed Under Hunting 

Deer-hunting quota going up

May 26, 2008



With food prices rising sharply, the Department of Natural Resources is offering some relief for families that enjoy venison.

Hunters this fall can legally kill up to seven deer each, which would provide 350-500 pounds of lean, high-protein meat.

The Natural Resources Commission voted to increase the quota for antlerless deer from three to five per hunter in the 2008 seasons that start with archery season Oct. 1 in southern Michigan.

Giant pythons invade southeastern Florida: study

MIAMI (AFP) — Giant pythons capable of swallowing a dog and even an alligator are rapidly making south Florida their home, potentially threatening other southeastern states, a study said.

“Pythons are likely to colonize anywhere alligators live, including north Florida, Georgia and Louisiana,” said Frank Mazzotti, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences professor, in his two-year study.

The pythons thriving in Florida are mostly Burmese pythons from Myanmar that were brought over as pets and then turned loose in the wild.

From 2002-2005, 201 of the beasts were caught by state authorities, but in the last two years the number has more than doubled to 418, Mazzotti said in his study published on the university website.

The largest python caught so far in Florida measured five meters (16.4 feet) and weighed 70 kilograms (154 pounds).

Mazzotti said the serpents, despite their awesome size, are not poisonous, but are excellent swimmers and able to cover great distances in little time. Some, trapped and released with radio transmitters, swam 60 kilometers (37 miles) in a few hours.

Highly adaptable, pythons prey on cats, dogs, hares, foxes, squirrels, raccoons and even alligators, allowing them to thrive in a variety of environments.

After populating the Florida Everglades — a vast marshland — where it is estimated they number 30,000, the giant python is now spreading across the rest of the peninsula.

“Females may store sperm, so they can produce fertile clutches for years. And a 100-something pound snake can easily be producing 60, 80 eggs a year,” said Mazzotti, adding that the reptile could eventually populate the entire southern United States.

Written by fandw08 · Filed Under Hunting, Uncategorized 

Idaho considers wolf hunt rules

May 26, 2008



BOISE, Idaho — Hunters searching Idaho’s backcountry for wolves would be barred from using bait, snares, traps or electronic calls to help track the predators, but not required to discern between male and female targets.

A set of hunting recommendations proposed Thursday by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game would also bring an immediate end to the season once a mortality quota was reached through a combination of hunting, state sanction control measures, accidents or natural causes.

The total mortality quota suggested for a 2008 season is 328, a total state game officials say would yield a total wolf population estimated between 550 and 600 animals. That range is within the estimate called for in the state’s broader wolf management plan approved in March.

“Our wolf plan is in place and our hunting rules follow the plan as closely as possible,” Steve Nadeau, the agency’s large carnivore manager, told The Associated Press. “We believe the plan for hunting assures the long term viability of wolf populations across the state.”

The release of the hunting recommendations sets off a public comment period that expires May 16. After reviewing comments and making any changes, a final set of rules and season dates will be submitted to the Fish and Game Commission to review May 21.

It proposal’s release also comes in the same week that environmental groups sued the federal government in an effort to overturn its decision in March to remove an estimated 1,500 wolves in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana from endangered species status.

For now, those three states are responsible for managing wolves under plans approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Like Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are also writing regulations for hunting the predators.

Despite the litigation, Idaho is moving forward with its plans to manage its wolf population, estimated in March at about 800. And part of its population control strategy is an open, public hunting season that could begin as early as September, under the recommendations.

Other rules proposed by the agency include:

* Bag limit: no hunter can take more wolves than allowed by per single hunting tag.

* Hunters must report a kill within 72 hours,

* Use of dogs to attract or pursue wolves is prohibited.

* Hunters are encouraged to avoid shooting wolves with radio collars.

The agency has also proposed four separate seasons, each with varying lengths. The longest season would begin Aug. 30 and stretch through March, while the shortest would start Oct. 10 and end Dec. 31. The agency does not favor one season over another, Nadeau said.

The recommendations also set up kill quotas within 12 wolf management zones, which were established in the overall management plan. The highest quotas are in the north central portion of the state, including a quota of 50 for the Lolo zone near the Montana border.

Nadeau says the rules call for closing hunting in a zone once a quota is reached, and closing the season statewide once the 328 total for mortality is reached in 2008.

The statewide quota was determined using a formula that factored in all reported wolf kills, including natural causes, road kills, hunting estimates and control measures. The equation also considers a 15 percent average growth rate in the population and the state’s overall goal of managing a population between the range of 500 and 700 wolves.

Gary Macfarlane, spokesman for Friends of the Clearwater, one of the 12 groups involved in the federal lawsuit, said there are plenty of questions to be resolved before allowing wolf hunts. For example, he said the proposed quotas are too high in the northern part of the state, where wolf predation on weak and diseased deer, elk and other wildlife is critical to improving the health of the region’s big game herds.

“We really don’t think the quotas need to be so high in some of those zones,” he said. “We’re only going to delay the correction that needs to take place in the restoration of the elk population health.”

Written by fandw08 · Filed Under Hunting, Wildlife 

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