https://www.jhnewsandguide.com...bf-9e7e26fd66d6.html


Wyoming wildlife managers propose quadrupling bighorn ewe hunt in the Gros Ventre

Biologists say more hunting will protect the herd. Hunters have reservations.
By Christina MacIntosh / Environmental reporter 1 hr ago


KATHRYN ZIESIG / NEWS&GUIDE FILE

Compared to last hunting season, Wyoming wildlife managers want to issue four times as many tags for hunting female and juvenile bighorn sheep in the Gros Ventre Range.

The increased harvest is a strategy to trim the population, which is currently pushing up against its carrying capacity. Game and Fish counted the herd at 477 sheep this year. The department’s objective for the population is 400 animals plus or minus 20 percent, a range from 320 to 480 sheep.

“The research shows very clearly that once we get to those higher numbers, we’re entering the danger zone for a pneumonia die off,” said Aly Courtemanch, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Jackson-based wildlife biologist, and an expert in the area’s bighorn sheep populations.


Adult female survival is the cornerstone of ungulate populations’ growth, so culling ewes keeps their numbers from growing. The department introduced the ewe hunt for population management in 2022 and is still researching its impacts, with three years remaining in the study.

“Three more years will give us enough time to see if the ewe harvest is working,” Courtemanch said.

The number of tags issued has yo-yoed in the years since the hunt was introduced: from 16 in 2022 up to 30 in 2023, then back down to 10 in 2024.

But, as with any wildlife management strategy, the ewe hunt is not without controversy.

The skeptics

Hunters have come out against the department’s proposed increase in tags, arguing that spike in ewe hunters will disrupt the ram hunt in the Gros Ventre mountains east of Jackson, known formally as hunt area seven, and that the bump from 10 tags to 40 is extreme.

“You’re riding the ragged edge of culling too many,” said Jason Reinhardt, a hunter who has hunted in the Tetons for the past 20 years and participated in western Wyoming ram hunts for the past two.

Given that 60% of hunters succeeded in last year’s ewe hunt, Game and Fish’s proposed quota is expected to lead to culling 32 ewes, holding the population stable or bringing it down slightly, Courtemanch said.

Reinhardt is skeptical that the population requires that much culling based on his observations.

Comment on hunting seasons
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is in the process of finalizing its proposals for hunting elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose and other big game animals in Wyoming. The deadline to comment is 5 p.m. April 2.

Hunters, wildlife advocates and other interested parties can view proposed regulations and submit comments online at TinyURL.com/gaf2025.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission is set to review and approve the proposed regulations at its April 22 and 23 meeting in Cheyenne.

The deadline for resident hunters to apply for tags to hunt moose, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats is April 30. The deadline for elk, deer, pronghorn, fall turkeys and sandhill cranes, among other species, is June 2.

“For a guy that’s out there looking through high-dollar glass every day for two months of the year, I don’t see the bighorn sheep population as something that’s in trouble,” he said.

Other hunters worry that the increase in ewe tags, along with an expanded hunt area for ewe licenses, will impact the ram hunt.

“A sheep tag is once-in-a-lifetime,” said Dustin Child, a Star Valley-based outfitter. “You don’t get a second chance. This is like a quarter of a century waiting for this license.”

The department does not want to change the ram season, keeping 12 tags. The archery season for rams is set to begin Aug. 1 and end Aug. 14, with the regular season running from Aug. 15 and ending Oct. 31.

In contrast, the archery season for ewes will begin Aug. 1 and Aug. 31 and the regular season will span from Sept. 10 to Oct. 15, with an opportunity for hunters to use unspent tags from Nov. 1 to Nov. 15.

The updated proposal also includes ewe hunting in the Flat Creek drainage.

It was previously only allowed in the Gros Ventre River drainage.

“More hunters in the area is going to put rams into the timber,” Child said. “Just the activity there, the gunshots going off is going to scare rams into the trees.”

“You’re riding the ragged edge of culling too many.” — Jason Reinhardt, sheep hunter

Hunt area seven already has the second lowest success rate for ram harvest in the state.

“My advice to anyone hunting a ram in area seven is I would look at hunting in another area,” Child said.

The science

Game and Fish’s interest in keeping the population around 400 is based on research collected with the University of Wyoming over the past decade.

Collared ewes are captured biannually, during which they’re tested for disease, lactation and body fat levels. When the population is around the objective, they’re in good health.

“When they get above 400, above carrying capacity, their body condition drops,” Courtemanch said. “That’s exactly what we would predict because when there are more animals competing for food, they’re not going to get everything they need.”

With population numbers on the rise, Game and Fish predicts that the cycle of poor body condition and subsequent population decline will begin again. Though population fluctuation is normal, the presence of pneumonia in the population makes the swings extreme.

“If this was a bighorn sheep population that didn’t have disease, didn’t have pneumonia, they would kind of naturally regulate themselves, that’s just how carrying capacity works,” Courtemanch said.

Pneumonia in the herd leads to dramatic crashes after which the population takes a while to recover.

The potential for the hunt to stabilize the population makes Child amenable to the idea, if it happens when the ram season is over.

“I’m not totally opposed to them harvesting the ewes, if that can help prevent one of those [population] valleys,” Child said. “I’m just opposed to the conflict with rams.”

will it be easier to capture them and relocated them in places when populations are crashing?

quote:

Originally posted by medved:
will it be easier to capture them and relocated them in places when populations are crashing?

Exactly

quote:

Originally posted by medved:
will it be easier to capture them and relocated them in places when populations are crashing?

I would not think so.

Would cost a huge amount more.

No money to be made from selling permits.

How many would die trying to capture them and transport them.

In Montana it is done to capture some from one herd and transplant them to another area
Yes it is expensive and but that’s why we pay for licenses

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:

quote:

Originally posted by medved:
will it be easier to capture them and relocated them in places when populations are crashing?

I would not think so.

Would cost a huge amount more.

No money to be made from selling permits.

How many would die trying to capture them and transport them.

they have done that in past in muliple areas but i do agree there is a cost like for everything ...