Hopefully something can be done to prevent this tragic situation. Some have suggested hunting 75% of this herd but numbers are way down due to a severe winter kill. Nix that...we need a solution to the problem. If anyone hears of one, please advise.
LDKEastern Montana Antelope need help

The problem I have with their attitude is they claim the antelope "evolved" with the situation, but isn't it a man-made reservoir? Here in Utah, they spend thousands rounding-up and relocating hundreds of antelope. It wouldn't be that hard if they wanted to capture them.

Feed them lead...or copper.

Perry

They should do "fire sale" hunts for a couple hundred of the antelope.....then use the revenue generated by those hunts to trap/capture and relocate the rest.

It's not rocket science....

Fella's, MT lost a great many of their antelope herd due to severe winter kill. As hunters, this is conservation need. MT is reducing their permits this year in order to conserve what they have left, and trust me, they aren't over run with speed goats. MC, I couldn't agree more. I love to hunt antelope as much as anyone but in this case, they need to be saved. I hope you guys agree. Just trying to get some wheels rolling. Thanks, David

Contact SCI. I know they were involved in bringing Antelope into WA. Maybe they could get them relocated?

quote:

Originally posted by L. David Keith:
Hopefully something can be done to prevent this tragic situation. Some have suggested hunting 75% of this herd but numbers are way down due to a severe winter kill. Nix that...we need a solution to the problem. If anyone hears of one, please advise.
LDKEastern Montana Antelope need help

Last time I hunted Glasgow, the hunting was already pretty thin.

Before the dam, they'd have been able to get back across the river, sounds like they're in bad trouble now. How many truckloads would they make? Do antelope tolerate riding around in trucks? Is it even possible to get trucks to the site, if the antelope can't get out? I doubt a Boeing Vertol would work, no guarantee that they wouldn't bunch up at one end or the other and make an unfixable weight-and-balance problem.

Would boats work? Are antelope smart enough to see a flatboat haul a few mules across the river and realize that they might do likewise (this is expecting a lot from a beast but they've outsmarted me often enough to make me wonder about it).

Can they swim far enough towards the dam to reach shallower sloping banks, where they don't have to climb cliffs? Once at the dam, they can walk the rest of the way along the reservoir, or they might just head south towards Circle and Jordan.

If not that, how about a few hundred yards of pontoon bridge along the south bank, to get them out of the area where the cliffs are? Once the bridge was in place and the people cleared out, they might give it a try, although it wouldn't seem very natural to them.

How high are the cliffs? Is it possible to build a walkway of some sort to the top, or cut a road, such that they could get out on their own? There was a cable tram once in Zion Canyon, hauled whole trees on slings between the canyon bottom and rim. Is it too crazy to catch them and use a cable tram and slingw to haul them to the top, assuming they would hold still long enough to truss them up?

Lastly, how much feed would have to be hauled in there to make up enough to keep them alive, if the decision was made to feed them in place? Too bad no one knew about this in advance, they might have planted alfalfa where the antelope are hung up before the dry weather came (would that work - who farms there to know?).

It's not like there was a shortage of people to work on the problem, in mid-recession. Does that make me a spendy liberal? Last time I hunted Glasgow, game was thin, I hate to think of it getting worse.

Here is a short clip of transplanting, including pronghorns.

http://www.youtube.com/UDWR#p/u/39/th35x2sNyho

I'd think they could get a few MT sportsmen out to mug pronghorns.

I am in the special hunt camp. We "save" these antelope and next year when there is a bad winter we get to "save" them again.

Could the money spent on saving these antelope be used for a more worthy conservation effort?

If these antelope die, it is not the end of antelope.