BROOKINGS – The Brookings Wildlife Federation will hear BWF President Spencer Vaa tell about two big game hunting adventures at the Friday, Nov. 1, Infolunch at noon at the First Lutheran Church Coffee House.
Vaa is one of Brookings' most traveled and accomplished outdoorsmen. He has taken Federation members on adventures from Africa to Alaska and throughout the Rocky Mountains. This month he will take participants caribou hunting in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and bighorn sheep hunting in Wyoming.
Vaa traveled above the Arctic Circle to hunt caribou in the Arctic National Wildlife refuge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages the caribou herds that migrate through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – the largest refuge/wilderness area in North America.
The service’s caribou population size estimates give numbers that allow for sustainable harvest (subsistence and sport hunts). Two herds use the Refuge. The Porcupine Herd numbers approximately 100,000 animals, while the Central Arctic Herd numbers about 23,000 animals. Hunters are required to hire a guide for caribou hunts.
For his Wyoming hunt, Vaa had to be lucky to get a license to hunt bighorns in Wyoming. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department warns prospective hunters that “obtaining a bighorn sheep license is akin to winning the lottery.” Drawing odds are typically less than 1%.
The Wyoming Department also warns that hunting bighorn sheep is logistically difficult and physically demanding and typically involves packing gear long distances into rugged country, often at high elevations.
The restoration of the bighorn sheep population is a Wyoming conservation success story. In 1960, there were estimated to be 2,000 bighorn sheep in Wyoming, restricted entirely to the northwest corner of the state.
Today, there are between 6,000 and 7,000 bighorn sheep, mostly in “core” herds in the Absaroka, Teton, Gros Ventre, and Wind River mountain ranges. However, the state’s “trap and transfer” program has reestablished populations in 10 other areas.
The most contentious issue in Wyoming’s management plans is not hunting or the number of licenses but the interaction between bighorn sheep and domestic sheep and the transmission of disease. At a previous meeting, Federation members heard about diseases in bighorn sheep in South Dakota’s Black Hills. SDSU professor Jon Jenks said that there are about 300 bighorn sheep in South Dakota in four herds, and he reported on his research on disease problems.
The infolunch is open to the public. A light lunch is available for purchase from the Coffee House kitchen. The BWF is affiliated with the South Dakota Wildlife Federation and the National Wildlife Federation. The BWF is in its 40th year of supplying conservation information and activities to the Brookings community. For more information, contact BWF President Spencer Vaa at 695-6867.
