Quote:
Originally Posted by Bushrat
It is a 'trophy hunt'. Always has been. Thats why the hunt for male sheep is restricted to 4/5's or full curl and not any just any ram. Read the regulations, thats how they describe them in the horn curl restrictions and what they call them in the season openings for management units and on the tags they issue. The trophy horn restriction is the only reason we do have a general season sheep hunt.
Hunter opportunity is great but when you have a limited herd on a very small portion of Alberta percentage wise we are very fortunate to have the general open season we do have. If everyone bought sheep tags like they do deer tags there would be few if any left. Moose are spread all over Alberta and are far more numerous than sheep, yet they are pretty much draw everywhere, people can't hunt them every year. People are waiting many years in many areas to get an 'opportunity' to hunt them. Quite honestly in my opinion it is hard to believe sheep in Alberta are not on draw already. Personally I can't see he current 'opportunity' allowing anybody to buy a general sheep tag every year lasting much longer.
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I disagree with your interpretation of history. I promise you that the reason it is not any ram is because at some point biologists got together and determined that 4/5ths or full curl in places balances hunting opportunity with the population dynamics they were after.
I think you have to specify what you mean when you say limited. By what measure are sheep limited? I would argue that based on current habitat sheep are doing well. I think we all agree they would be doing better with some of the habitat improvements and predator controls discussed previously. I would also argue that current harvest rates are completely sustainable.
I think the moose/deer comparison is apples and oranges. If you had some system in place that ensured that the average bull moose taken was 6-8 years old, I think you could have a ton of guys hunting moose (i.e. no draw) and very few would be successful because it would become difficult to find a legal moose. That is basically what you have with sheep. Lots of guys buy tags (%100 opportunity to hunt) but very few are successful because it is difficult to find a legal sheep. Seems perfectly democratic to me and encourages the maximum number of guys out experiencing sheep and sheep country (rather than the few with $ or older folks with high priority). This creates more advocates for the species and the habitat. If the harvest is sustainable then where is issue?