I received this e-mail and wanted to pass along the information.



Dear Friends, Clients and Interested Hunters,

Finally! Good news to report from Iran. As those of you who have been following the continuing struggle for hunting permits in Iran already know, the director of the Department of Environment (DOE) appointed in late 2011, Dr. Fazel successfully disrupted the latter part of the hunting season in 2011 by closing several of the major hunting areas and reducing the number of hunting permits to a trickle. Dozens of hunters were disenfranchised. He also successfully derailed the entire hunting season of 2012 by refusing to open the hunting season and closing additional nature reserves to hunting. These restrictions affected both residents and non-residents. These actions and other irresponsible behavior have now resulted in his dismissal.



A new director has now taken over wildlife management responsibilities at DOE and has promised to reverse many of the unpopular decisions and reopen a number of the famous nature reserves which were previously open to hunting. Our partners at Iran Safari are meeting almost daily with the new director, Dr. Sadough, who was instrumental in establishing the previous program for non-resident hunters. He has just announced that hunting will resume this year. Meetings are being held now to determine precisely which reserves will be reopened to hunting and the specific license quotas for each. Then decisions will be made concerning the distribution of licenses between residents and non-residents. We anticipate having some 250 permits available covering virtually all of the species that were previously huntable.



The bad news is that prices will rise sharply. The DOE has decided to couple the non-resident hunting program with the funding of the Asian Cheetah Restoration Project. A substantial amount of the money derived from the non-resident hunting program will be earmarked for reintroduction of cheetahs and protection of their habitat. The result will be an increase in the price for all non-resident hunts of approximately 30%. This will likely be apportioned unevenly, with rarer species priced higher than common species. Therefore we anticipate a significant increase for permits for the rare sheep, such as the Laristan sheep and the Afghan urial.




I am flying out tomorrow to meet with our partners at Iran Safari. As negotiations with the DOE enter their final stage, I want to ensure that the information we are providing to you is absolutely correct and current. We will also be making the necessary reservations at the best nature reserves and securing license quotas for our clients who have been so patient throughout this long wait. I will report back as soon as I have precise prices and a list of the reserves which will be opened to hunting.







In the meantime, those of you who are interested in traveling to Iran this season, or are still booked from 2011 and 2012, are urged to contact our office in Virginia and let us know precisely which species you are interested in (or still interested in) hunting and when you are available to travel. When I return, I will assemble this information and set up a hunt calendar. As always, the date upon which we received your deposit will be the primary determining factor in the distribution of permits and calendar space in the better hunting reserves.

After almost two years of waiting, we are very excited about the reopening of Iran. No other country in Asia provides hunters with as many species of wild sheep and goats. The level of outfitting service is high and trophy quality was excellent when hunting was interrupted in 2011. We hope very much that this long wait will have been worth it and that we will have a great hunting season in Iran this year. We look forward to hearing from you.


Best Wishes,

Bob Kern

THE HUNTING CONSORTIUM, LTD.

45 Spring House Lane Berryville, VA 22611

Phone: 540-955-0090
Fax: 540-955-0091
hunt@huntcon.com
www.huntingconsortium.com

Interesting news!

I'm hoping nobody starts any shooting over there. I want to get over this fall for Transcaspian urial and Persian ibex.

Wow, that is good news.

I would like a Trans Caspian Urial and a Persian Ibex as well, but like all things in Mountain Hunting I should have done those things in the 1990's in Turkmenistan when I could afford them.

quote:

Originally posted by bwanawannabe:
I'm hoping nobody starts any shooting over there. I want to get over this fall for Transcaspian urial and Persian ibex.

Exactly my concern. If it starts there, it will be bad.

It will be much worse than the other wars and I don't think it would be limited to Iran if something does happen. I was pretty disappointed I couldn't get my permits last year but I did a couple awesome hunts instead. I thought it was lucky that a year went by from when I booked in 2011 that nothing started. Now I have to wait a few more months on the edge of my seat...

http://www.shunnesonwilson.com/IranHunting.html


Price list from Ken Wilson, the newly added Conservation fees are near the bottom of the link.

That is an EXPENSIVE hunt!!

Leopardtrack, the hunt is quite expensive for a single species. But when you compare the sheep hunt costs there are very few ovis hunts that are cheaper than this i.e NA sheep with the exception of the dall variety, Pakistani urials (and himalayan blue sheep), all of the argalis, and Russian snow sheep hunts are now quite expensive as well. The only sheep you are gonna get that are consistently cheaper are the aoudad, dall, European mouflon, himalayan blue sheep in Nepal (but by the time chopper and community fees are paid for you are neck in neck with these prices as well), the various "Texas" sheep, and the turs (they aren't really a sheep anyways...helluva hunt though).

I was booked to hunt Iran last year when permits were not given out. I was supposed to hunt two sheep, an ibex and boar and the entire hunt would've came to the same price as an average stone sheep hunt in northern BC. This season I'm going to try and get over there and I have a license for only one sheep this time. Due to other hunts coming up I can't afford to do more this time but if I was to add a second species, it would more than exceed last years price for three mountain animals and a pig. I'm not impressed by these major increases but I really want a Transcaspian urial...and there's no where else to get a native range one as of now.

Just as a comparison: unless you were to luck out with a bargain cancellation hunt, a regular leopard hunt is going to run you a fairly similar bill when all is said and done (bait animals, dip + pack, shipping, etc).