Quote:
Originally Posted by Lr1000
This is a very easy point of view for those of us with sheep. Which by the looks of it you have a few. But by giving ESTD this win, Where will they stop? So this doesn't work. Let's put on draw. Next thing you know we have no season and we will tell our kids of the days we use to be able to hunt sheep. I'm still young enough, I know if it goes to full curl I will still be able to shoot sheep. However one day I would like to take my now young kids out sheep hunting.
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Agreed! Look at wmu 400. First zone to go to full curl, first zone most likely to lose 2 weeks of the season....and the way we are going, either first zone to go full draw or worse, close completely!
Quote:
Originally Posted by bdub
The way I see it is we are killing most of the rams at 5-7 years old, as soon as they become legal. Natural ram mortality is actually quite low up to the age of 8 years old. After that it increases quite a bit as they become more active in the rut. We are killing most of the rams prior to them becoming heavy participants in passing on their genetics. Heaviest natural mortality is in rams 10 plus years old. Something you don't much see in Alberta outside of the parks, mines etc. How is the status quo natural, good for the population if we are eliminating those Rams prior to them reaching breeding age in most of the range. We are never going to see good healthy numbers of all age classes of Rams if we keep killing them off at 5-7 years old. Won't happen.
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I can appreciate your opinion. But... we actually have no data that support this. Nor do we have an actual aging system, that is more creditable. One ram can have a variance of up to 3 years in different hands ! Also when they age rams they don't account for year broomed off!
We have to realize, that bigger horns doesn't necessarily mean better genetics in the animal world. Not every 200 inch whitetail, is the dominate buck, nor is every 200 inch ram..
Until we are given more info, and or allowed time to conduct our own independent (through organizations and foundations) studies, let not believe what they say, just because they say it!