Dec 22, 2010: Ramming Texas

[xoxoxoBruce]

This is the extreme, most photogenic, part of the reintroducing Bighorn Sheep in Texas.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's capturing bighorn sheep with a helicopter and transporting them to the Big Bend State Park as part of a project ironically funded by hunting the sheep. Everything's bigger and better in Texas, even environmentalism.

Hunting provides most of the money to restore bighorns and their habitat. Every year the Wild Sheep Foundation and Dallas Safari Club auction permits to hunt wild bighorn sheep in Texas, which sell for $70,000 to $115,000 per permit. Money raised goes to support research and habitat management for Texas bighorn restoration.
The last two years Texas has issued 16 sheep hunting permits annually. Permits depend on annual population surveys and are issued for state and private lands where harvestable rams are observed. A harvestable ram is an older, 7-to-12 year old male that has "done his thing" and is deemed surplus to the population.

A lot of people are unaware of the extra taxes tacked on to all hunting and fishing supplies, which are use for state and federal wildlife programs. Without those taxes from sportsmen, many environmental programs would disappear.

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[morethanpretty]

As long as they don't get in the way of the ranchers...

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by morethanpretty

As long as they don't get in the way of the ranchers...

Isn't that why they're moving them to the park?

[Lamplighter]

Every year the Wild Sheep Foundation and Dallas Safari Club auction permits to hunt wild bighorn sheep in Texas, which sell for $70,000 to $115,000 per permit. Money raised goes to support research and habitat management for Texas bighorn restoration

This should be moved to the the "favorite oxymoron" thread

[xoxoxoBruce]

Why is that? 40 years ago the sheep had been decimated. Now, through this program, they are back to 2/3 of the original levels.

[Lamplighter]

I guess they didn't have permit auctions back then

But I do like the names of the two groups...
"The WILD Sheep Foundation" and the "Dallas SAFARI Club"
They conjure up such romantic images.

I can just see myself prowling through the skyscrapers of Dallas,
spotting the animals on ledges with my $1K Leupold scope,
and after the kill, mounting the beast on the wall of my den.
Oh, there's Mrs Palin and her caribou on TV

Ah, such sweet memories of "the hunt"

[morethanpretty]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Isn't that why they're moving them to the park?

You expect that they'll stay in the park? Animals don't often understand our boundaries, and are usually given less room than they really need/want.

I think Lamp is saying the oxymoron is that the funding from hunting wouldn't even be needed if the animals hadn't been over-hunted in the first place.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by morethanpretty

... if the animals hadn't been over-hunted in the first place.

Total bullshit. Back up your statements.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Total bullshit. Back up your statements.

From the same link I posted above.

Bighorn are native to the state but were extirpated in Texas by the early 1960s.
Texas Parks and Wildlife has dedicated decades toward their careful reintroduction to state lands.
About 1,500 now populate the Sierra Diablo, Elephant Mountain and Black Gap wildlife management areas.
Parks officials aim to place bighorn at Big Bend Ranch within the next several years, said Boruff.

But what is your point ?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by morethanpretty

You expect that they'll stay in the park? Animals don't often understand our boundaries, and are usually given less room than they really need/want.

I think Lamp is saying the oxymoron is that the funding from hunting wouldn't even be needed if the animals hadn't been over-hunted in the first place.

From what I've read, one big problem was diseases they caught from contact with livestock. Is that a euphemism for shot by ranchers? I can't see there ever being enough Bighorns to eat much, and they wouldn't threaten anything, other than maybe chickens.

In the late 1800s there were perhaps up to 1,500 sheep in the rugged mountains of Trans-Pecos Texas. However, due mainly to unregulated hunting and diseases from domestic and exotic livestock, Texas bighorn numbers dwindled to about 500 in 1903 and by the 1960s they were gone.

[Trilby]

cover my eyes! I can't look!

[Coign]

Hunters have traditionally been the biggest supporters of animal habitats. We know, if you don't take care of the cute little bambis in the woods, you will not get to go out and shoot them to make delicious, delicious venison sausage.

It is farmers that usually hate the wildlife messing up their lands. (If that farmer is not a hunter. But in Minnesota, most farmers are hunters and so understand animal conservation too.)

[TheMercenary]

So I get from your post Lamplighter that you are adverse to hunting rights and don't support the environmentalism that is conducted through hunting taxes, license plates, and other things. You have sufficiently demonized a right to hunt.

I think they are great programs. Our hunting programs in GA support tons of wildlife conservation programs, many that have little if anything to do with hunting, and I am glad to do it. I also support the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

Here is an example of some of their work.

http://www.rmef.org/NewsandMedia/NewsReleases/

[Lamplighter]

Come on Merc, lighten up.
Do you really think that living in Oregon and being married
to a girl from Montana, I would demonize the "right to hunt" ?

I do have a problem with hypocrisy when it's essentially only the landed-gentry
and the wealthy that can afford the "right".
If you follow the news about "trophy" hunts you already understand what I mean.

Public hunting of bighorn does occur in very limited numbers and the chance for a hunt is highly prized.
[Texas] Parks and Wildife issued a total of 15 permits in 2008-09,
11 of which went to private landowners near wildlife management areas.
Of the remaining four permits, one Elephant Mountain permit was donated to a
Wild Sheep Foundation auction and brought $70,000;
one was a part of the Texas Grand Slam drawing and two were public hunter drawings.

And the results are....

As the lucky winner of this year's Big Time Texas Hunts crown jewel, the Texas Grand Slam hunt package,
Garcia receives four separate guided hunts for Texas' most prized big game animals
- desert bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer, pronghorn antelope and mule deer.

All told, hunters bought 64,759 Big Time Texas Hunt entries during this year's sales period through the Oct. 15 deadline.
This generated about $620,000 in gross revenue to support wildlife research, habitat management and public hunting.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

Come on Merc, lighten up.
Do you really think that living in Oregon and being married
to a girl from Montana, I would demonize the "right to hunt" ?

I'm gathering information on you, post by post...