Ex-guard member plans to sue state - The Sheridan Press

Outdoors Outdoors
Season
for
hunting
Mule deer, elk hunters
meet with success as
seasons open
By Patrick J. Murphy
Sports Editor
Hunting seasons in the Sheridan area went off to a
good start with the opening of a majority of mule deer and
elk hunting areas opening Oct. 15.
Area Wyoming Game and Fish personnel had check
stations for hunters near Kaycee, Buffalo and Dayton.
“For the number of animals, it looks like in Dayton
probably there were 180 big game animals (checked),
Black Hills deer,
turkey hunters
should note regs
before heading out
SUNDANCE — Black Hills deer hunters are alerted to regulation
changes for 1999 in hunt areas 1-6.
For the Nov. 1-20 season, deer hunters are restricted to antlered
deer on public land and any deer only on private land. In previous
years, hunters were allowed to harvest any deer on public lands other
than national forest land.
“In previous years, the public land other than national forest land
was sustaining a substantial amount of harvest of does and fawns,”
said Sundance game warden Chris Teter. “With the depressed deer
population in the Black Hills, this was not helping our goal of building
the herd.”
The public land receiving heavy doe/fawn harvest in 1998 included
Bureau of Land Management land north of Devils Tower,
Thunder Basin National Grassland near Upton, state land near
Beulah and the Sand Creek Wildlife Area.
Teter added that this season is a bit more conservative in response
to low deer numbers. “The 1999 season will protect more does and
fawns while giving landowners latitude to control damage situations
if they choose,” he said.
Hunters are also reminded that the closing day for deer season in
hunt areas 1-6 and turkey hunt area 1 is Nov. 20.
The G&F urges all hunters to read the 1999 hunting regulations
before heading to the field this fall.
“Many people from across Wyoming travel to the Black Hills to
hunt deer and turkeys in November,” Teter said. “Those planning on
hunting the Black Hills in November this year should be aware the
seasons close before Thanksgiving again this year.”
Turkey populations in the Black Hills have recovered following
three years of good reproduction.
The G&F opened the turkey season this fall in hunt area 1 on Oct.
15 and it will close on Nov. 20 to coincide with deer season closing.
Hunters are also reminded that antelope season will also close
Nov. 20 in hunt areas 1-5.
The Sheridan Press, Thursday, October 21, 1999
mostly deer and some elk,” said Lynn Jahnke, regional wildlife management
coordinator with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department based in Sheridan.
Near 400 animals were checked through the Buffalo station, and in Kaycee
just under 250.
Check stations were run at Kaycee for the first three days of the season,
Sunday and Monday at the Buffalo check station and Friday afternoon and
Saturday through Monday near Dayton.
“Down in the south end, Kaycee area hunters are doing really well on
deer,” Jahnke said. “Some elk are coming off there, if they are able to get on
places where there are elk.”
Those who hunted in areas on the west side of the Big Horns near Ten
Sleep are “doing well on elk and deer,” Jahnke said. “On the east side near
Buffalo, some hunters were doing fairly well on elk. We did see some very
nice, mature bulls coming through the Buffalo check station.”
Based on the number of of animals checked near Dayton, G&F personnel
estimate the elk season is off to a slow start, as well as deer hunting in the Big
Horns.
“We did see come elk, but not a lot,” Jahnke said. “The deer harvest is
somewhat slow on the mountain. Once we get snowstorms up on the mountain,
we have less harvest of deer.”
As for hearing complaints from hunters, Jahnke said, “Hunters seemed to
be fairly pleased with the season.”
Hunters who get out year in and year out said they “are seeing a comeback
of many of the game populations,” Jahnke noted. “Overall, the condition of
the animals was pretty good, with good amounts of fat and the animals seem
to be in good shape.”
Few citations were handed out at the check stations.
“We had very few violations, so compliance was really good. We are glad
to see that,” Jahnke said.
G&F personnel had volunteer help at the check stations. Among those volunteers
were Sheridan College students who participated as part of school
classes.
“The added help was a real benefit for getting folks checked through the
stations quickly,” Jahnke said.
The weather, i.e. snow or rain, has not been a major factor yet in hunting.
“The weather hasn’t been too bad,” Jahnke said. “The first day (Oct. 15)
was a pretty good day and there was a little bit of snow that evening, which in
some cases helped hunters the second day. Now, it is turning out to be good
again. Hunters are able to get around pretty well.”
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CHECK IT OUT — Wyoming Game and Fish Department wildlife biologist
Tim Thomas inspects an elk at a hunter check station. G&F personnel
report hunters are seeing a comeback of many big game populations.
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Wyoming Game and Fish Dept. photo
Unusual house guest for Green River couple
GREEN RIVER — Green River residents Richard and Bobbie Eaton
had an unusual house guest Sept. 16.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department wildlife investigator Scott
Browning received a call that the Eatons had a deer in their house.
Realizing he might need some help capturing the deer, Browning enlisted
the help of Wildlife Supervisor Steve DeCecco and Wildlife
Coordinator Bill Rudd.
The Eatons had been expecting a furniture delivery so they left their
front door open. Unbeknownst to them a fawn deer was hit by a vehicle in
front of their house on East Teton Blvd. After getting hit, the fawn ran
straight through the Eaton’s front door and down the stairs.
Bobbie Eaton said that she had been standing by the stairway and felt
something hit her leg and then saw something at the bottom of the stairs. “I
initially thought that it was a dog and then quickly realized it was a deer,”
she said. Her husband went down the stairs after the fawn and it ran into a
basement room.
“Now the story really gets strange,” according to Browning.
The Eatons have a floor-to-ceiling wallpaper scene of a deciduous forest
in fall foliage. A small group of deer is pictured standing underneath the
trees. When the G&F guys arrived, the fawn was at the back of the room
standing next to the deer on the wallpaper.
“I guess it felt at home,” said Browning. “Even though the deer were
made of paper, it all looked quite serene and peaceful.”
The G&F crew gently grabbed the fawn, took it out of the house and
released it nearby.
The fawn did not appear to have been injured from either being hit by
the vehicle or the trip down the stairs. The fawn was last seen heading at a
fast trot toward where the mother had last been seen.
UW student helps tribe track mountain lions
IGNACIO, Colo. (AP) — Mountain lions may be one of the most feared and
elusive predators of Southwest Colorado, but a crew of scientists on the
Southern Ute Indian Reservation has been persistently searching for the wildcats
since January.
The tribe is studying the dynamics of the mountain lion population on the
reservation to develop a management plan that will determine if the population
can sustain a hunting season, and if so, what the harvest limit should be and
when the season should take place, according to Joe Koloski, a graduate student
from the University of Wyoming, who is heading the study.
The reservation was opened to mountain lion hunting in 1992, but was
closed following the 1997 winter season, Koloski said. Non-tribal members
killed 18 mountain lions on the reservation during the 1992 and 1993 hunting
seasons. After 1993, only tribal members were allowed to hunt the cats, he said.
Tribal members were killing an average of two lions per year, according to
Terry Stroh, the head of the tribe’s Division of Wildlife Resource Management.
Koloski said the level of harvest caused some concern within the wildlife
department, because it wasn’t known if such hunting was sustainable.
‘‘They didn’t really know what they were doing to the population,’’ he said.
The tribe then initiated the study to determine the population density of lions
on the reservation, which covers 681,306 square acres.
Stroh said he does not know how much the study is costing.
Other goals of the study are to determine the mountain lions’ pattern of
reproduction and the survival rates of adult mountain lions, Koloski said.
To track a mountain lion, the crew first drives slowly through the reservation’s
back roads, looking for tracks. Then, they use specially trained hound
dogs to pick up the lion’s scent and chase it down.
Koloski said it is much easier to track animals when there is snow on the
ground, because the tracks are more visible and the snow holds a scent better.
Once the dogs catch a lion’s scent, it normally doesn’t take them long to chase
the lion up a tree, Koloski said.
The crew then shoots the lion with an immobilizing dart and ties the dogs
back to allow the lion an escape route. Lions that have been shot normally don’t
feel comfortable in the tree anymore, Koloski said, so they take advantage of
their escape route and leave.
Within about 10 minutes of being shot by the dart, however, the lion’s muscles
relax beyond use and an anesthetic makes them go unconscious, Koloski
said.
After the lion passes out, the crew has about two hours to go about their
work. While the lion is unconscious, they harness it with a radio collar, tag its
ear, tattoo its inner lip with an identification number, estimate its age and record
general observations on its health and reproductive status, Koloski said.
Once an animal is collared, the crew can locate its position on weekly flights
over the reservation and bordering areas. Each collar has a different radio signal
distinguishing it from the other collared cats.
Since January, the mountain lion crew, made up of Koloski, the tribe’s
wildlife biologist Sam Diswood, two full-time wildlife technicians and bison
manager Chris Olguin, has tagged eight mountain lions.
Of the tagged lions, there are three adult females, one adult male, three subadult
females and one sub-adult male. Lions under 4 years old are characterized
as sub-adults, Koloski said.
Three of the adult female cats have had kittens, although the crew has only
been able to locate and view two of the litters. The crew does not tag the kittens.
‘‘Our goal is put out around 20 collars,’’ Koloski said. ‘‘We’ll continue with
our capture effort throughout the winter and hopefully get that done.’’
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