Dec 22, 2010: Ramming Texas

[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.