Published Saturday | September 1, 2007
Outdoors: Ban on bighorns to be lifted next year

BY DAVID HENDEE

WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER



PONCA, Neb. — One lucky Nebraskan will have the chance next year to shoot a bighorn sheep, but the number could grow to eight in coming years.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission approved a bighorn-hunting season for one hunter whose name will be selected in a lottery next spring.

It will be the first bighorn season in Nebraska since 2005.

"It makes sense to offer a permit next year," said Jim Douglas, the commission's wildlife manager. "There are three full-curl rams in the Fort Robinson herd."

But if natural death rates moderate and the state's four herds acquire normal age and gender distributions, Nebraska could someday sustain an annual harvest of as many as eight rams, Douglas said.

There are a record number of about 245 bighorns in western Nebraska.

The sheep are in four geographically scattered herds. Two are near Crawford at Fort Robinson State Park and Barrel Butte. Two are in the Wildcat Hills near Gering at Cedar Canyon and Hubbard Gap.

The Barrel Butte and Hubbard Gap herds were started from bighorns imported from Montana after about half the Fort Robinson herd died in a pneumonia outbreak a few years ago. The Fort Robinson herd appears to be on the mend.

"We're met our population goals, but it's a young herd with few full curl rams," Douglas said.

The herd structure at Fort Robinson and Cedar Canyon may allow two ram permits in 2009 and 2010 if survival rates remain high, Douglas said.

Barrel Butte and Hubbard Gap may have rams ready to hunt in 2011 and 2013, he said.

Douglas expects the return of bighorn hunting to attract a lot of hunter interest after two years without a season. About 1,200 hunters paid $20 each for the chance to have their names selected the last time Nebraska held a bighorn lottery.