Colville Antelope

[Curly]

The problem is being addressed much like the wolf issue.

Sounds similar to the sealion problem as well.

[Dry creek]

Antelope are on the loose. they released them Wednesday.

[Woodchuck]

Antelope are on the loose. they released them Wednesday.

How many did they release?

[Jonathan_S]

Antelope are on the loose. they released them Wednesday.

How many did they release?

Bone said 100 originally.  I've heard that number a few more times from people who consider themselves to be in the know.

[mfswallace]

Next we need some buffalo roaming around Washington.  They would probably be more destructive than horses.  The Colville Rez would be the perfect place to start them off.

aren't buffalo grazers just nipping the tips of grasses, as opposed to horses who pull everything up by the roots?

I'm not sure how buffalo graze but I do know horses are one of the worst. There are places on the yak Rez that are nothing but pure dirt where the horses are. What they don't eat they trample into dirt anyway.
I'll take bison any day over horses. Would be epic to send an arrow through the lungs!

Some of the best digging grounds are being decimated by the horses. They bite and pull killing not just the tops but the root as well, the part we eat. I almost shot a small herd when they begun jumping around towards family members, they appeared to be showing territorial behavior.

We need less horses by at least 9,999.

Is it against tribal rules to shoot them? Are they considered sacred?

[JDHasty]

Hmm... what's faster- an antelope or a wolf?

Wolf speedgoat interaction in Yellowstone caught on video

[boneaddict]

52 of them


NESPELEM—Wildlife staff from the Colville Tribes’ Fish and Wildlife Department released 52 pronghorns early yesterday morning in the southwestern part of the Colville Reservation.

“It’s all about restoration,” said Richard Whitney, wildlife manager for CTFW. “This is a primary goal of the wildlife program, to restore native and desired non-native species to the Colville Indian Reservation. Also, these animals won’t directly compete with elk, deer or moose. There are slight overlaps in habitat use between mule deer and pronghorn, but their diets are slightly different.”

The animals were captured through an aerial capture program in Nevada, and once captured, officials drew blood for DNA and disease testing, conducted body condition checks, age and temperature monitoring, according to tribal biologists.

Forty of the animals were fitted with GPS/VHF transmitting collars that wildlife officials say will be used to identify habitat usage, along with daily and seasonal migrations of the animals.

The animals were shipped to the Colville Reservation via stock trailers overnight.

“Anytime a wild creature (Tumi’xh) can be reintroduced to its native habitat, that is a good thing,” said Randall Friedlander, CTFW director.

The tribal mitigation area where the animals were released is primarily shrub-steppe habitat with draws and drainages that support riparian vegetation. Primary vegetation is bitterbrush, sagebrush (basin big sagebrush and three-tipped sagebrush) with undergrowth components of native perennial grasses and forbs.

[Timberstalker]

Awesome. I hope they take root and its successful.

[Jonathan_S]

They are incredibly fast.  I pulled over several times to get them on film and they sometimes ran in the same direction I was driving.  Clocked at 60mph+ and they'll run through a fence going about 40 mph 

[JDHasty]

They are incredibly fast.  I pulled over several times to get them on film and they sometimes ran in the same direction I was driving.  Clocked at 60mph+ and they'll run through a fence going about 40 mph 

Be careful about not running them into fence lines.  They break the wire and sometimes themselves too.  My cousins in Montana have a lot of fence mending they attribute to speed goats having hit the fence and broken the barbed wire. 

[Jonathan_S]

They are incredibly fast.  I pulled over several times to get them on film and they sometimes ran in the same direction I was driving.  Clocked at 60mph+ and they'll run through a fence going about 40 mph 

Be careful about not running them into fence lines.  They break the wire and sometimes themselves too.  My cousins in Montana have a lot of fence mending they attribute to speed goats having hit the fence and broken the barbed wire.

Yeah we quit trying after seeing how they use up so much energy when spooked

[quadrafire]

There is an article in the Spokesman review this morning about the release, but for the life of me I cannot find it online this morning to post.

[kirkl]

Read in the paper today that 11 have died so far.

[dwils233]

Read in the paper today that 11 have died so far.

link to the article? I'm curious how they died. Thats too bad, I hope they do well

[Bob33]

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-colville-tribes-risky-pronghorn-antelope.html