Antelope Reintroduction to Washington

[Dmanmastertracker]

I want to thank SCI for supporting this cause as they so often do.

I wonder if antelope or bison were native in Washington?

yes both antelope and bison were native in washington

 I know antelope were native, the N. American bison society show's the bison's historic range outside of Wa., in Idaho.

[jackelope]

 

[BIGINNER]

I want to thank SCI for supporting this cause as they so often do.

I wonder if antelope or bison were native in Washington?

yes both antelope and bison were native in washington

 I know antelope were native, the N. American bison society show's the bison's historic range outside of Wa., in Idaho.

hopefully the map will open

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bison_original_range_map.svg

[Wacenturion]

Here's a map that shows they did exist in the SE corner...............

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bison_original_range_map.svg

[Wacenturion]

Article regarding antelope in eastern Washington................


http://faculty.missouri.edu/~lymanr/pdfs/2007Pronghorn.pdf

[Heritage Hunter]

The whole project was an amazing example of what CAN be done.  There was an amazing number of people involved in this endeavor, and each and every one of them should be congratulated.  

For those of you not already involved in SCI, please consider becoming a member and making your voice heard.  As one of the world's leading hunting AND conservation groups, this is but a small example of the dedicated effort and good work they do.  As hunters and conservationists, it is our responsibility to protect our sport and be stewards of our wildlife--with or without the help of our State.

[bearpaw]

Article regarding antelope in eastern Washington................


http://faculty.missouri.edu/~lymanr/pdfs/2007Pronghorn.pdf

Very interesting map, thanks... they were all over eastern WA.

Heritage Hunter I totally agree, SCI does more for hunters than most people know.

[Dmanmastertracker]

 Wiki is not recognized as a scholarly journal - .

 http://headwaterseconomics.org/bison/BisonAtlasSummary.pdf


 All that said, it could be possible transients made it to Washington as strays, but that does not constitute a "native population", speaking strictly on bison.

[Heritage Hunter]

That first picture is one of the first antelope bucks back in Washington State.  He is one of 10 males and 90 females to make the trek.  Here is one of a doe just ready to step out of the transport trailer.  History....great stuff to see!

[bobcat]

The Holocene History of Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) in Eastern Washington State

Abstract

Historical documents are ambiguous regarding the presence/absence and distribution of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) in eastern Washington State. Paleozoological archaeological and paleontological) data indicate pronghorn were present there during most of the last 10,000 years, and available samples imply the boundaries of pronghorn distribution coincided with the modern distribution of shrub-steppe habitats. There is no evidence of temporal fluctuation in the abundance of pronghorn that cannot be explained by sampling error. Pronghorn were abundant relative to wapiti (Cervus elaphus) at the mouth of the Snake River but rare near the Washington–Idaho border. Pronghorn were never abundant relative to other ungulates, but were occasionally sufficiently numerous to form herds that were taken communally by groups of prehistoric hunters. Pronghorn were present but rare in the nineteenth century and did not persist into the twentieth century.

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Email:
lymanr@missouri.edu

Introduction
When Taylor and Shaw (1929:31) produced their provisional list of land mammals of Washington State, they noted that pronghorn (Antilocapraamericana) were at that time “extirpated” within the state but “the former range included much of the plains country of eastern Washington.” Some years later Booth (1947:592) indicated that pronghorn “do not normally occur in Washington” but that this species’ range “probably extended into this state formerly, for a skull has been found in Okanogan County.” The skull was recovered from the extreme northeastern corner of Okanogan County, and Booth (1947:594) speculated that its find location may not indicate that pronghorn had actually ranged that far north in the past because the skull “may have been carried there by an Indian, a trapper, or a hunter.” Dalquest (1948:415) reported that as far as he knew, “there is no record by any of the early explorers of antelope killed or seen in what is now Washington [State]. No bones of antelope have been discovered in caves in eastern Washington.”

Among the records left by early explorers that Dalquest consulted, Suckley and Gibbs (1860:136) doubted the validity of Lewis and Clark’s report that pronghorn could be found in the Columbia Basin of eastern Washington because they (Suckley and Gibbs) failed to observe any. J. G. Cooper (1868:537), a naturalist who accompanied survey parties seeking a railroad route into the West, however, reported second-hand information that in the area “towards the most westerly bend of the Columbia [River], a region uninhabited, and almost unknown to the Indians, large herds of Antelopes [were seen].” Einarsen (1948:3) later indicated that the southern half of eastern Washington was occupied by pronghorn when its range was at its “greatest extent” but he does not identify any evidence for his comment.

More recently, Ingles (1965:437) implied that pronghorn are not native to Washington and stated that they were “introduced in central Washington in 1938,” referring to the release of pronghorn by the State Game Department in the “Squaw Creek Refuge in southern Kittitas and northern Yakima counties” (Booth 1947:594). O’Gara (1978:2) reported that pronghorn were transplanted from Oregon and the Charles Sheldom National Antelope Refuge in Nevada and illustrated two areas where pronghorn were found in Washington; his map is at a scale that does not allow determination of the exact location of those two areas. Kitchen and O’Gara (1982) reiterated the historic range shown by Ingles (1965). Yoakum and O’Gara (2000) illustrated the “original range” described by Nelson (1925); it included a small portion of south-central Washington along the Washington–Oregon border. They contradicted that map, however, when they stated that Washington was “outside of ancestral habitats” of the species (Yoakum and O’Gara 2000:562). Pronghorn in Eastern Washington State 105 Yoakum (2004:77–80) reprints eight range maps generated during the twentieth century, none of which include eastern Washington in pronghorn range. Finally, McCabe et al. (2004:9–10) show what they term the “presumed macro-range at the time of European contact” as including much of eastern Washington. This map seems to be based at least in part on prehistoric remains of pronghorn (McCabe et al. 2004:21).

In sum, the historic evidence is ambiguous regarding the presence of pronghorn. Biologists who have commented on the native or ancestral range of this ungulate in eastern Washington do not agree on the boundaries of that range. It is perhaps for this reason that the most recent synopsis of Washington State mammals does not include any reference to pre-1900 pronghorn and merely mentions that the population transplanted to the state early in the twentieth century had been extirpated by the 1990s (Johnson and Cassidy 1997).

Were pronghorn in Washington State during early historic times? Were they present in  pre-Columbian (pre-sixteenth century) times? If they were present, did their distribution shift with climate, as did that of bison (Bison sp.), wapiti (Cervuselaphus), and bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) (e.g., Parks 2000; Lyman 2004a, 2004b)? Finally, were pronghorn present in post-Columbian times, and why were they (apparently) not (or at least quite rarely) present in the nineteenth century?

[jackelope]

http://nwsportsmanmag.com/articles/2011/01/17/Antelope+Arrive+In+WA+Over+Weekend/

[jackelope]

Antelope Arrive In WA Over Weekend
(Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:56:17 +0000)
Last week, they were racing across the northeast Nevada sage. Today, they’re learning about their new digs 450 miles to the north-northwest in South-central Washington.

In a lightning-fast move, 100 antelope were captured Saturday by the Nevada Department of Wildlife and dozens of volunteers, and 99 were driven in livestock trailers to the Mabton area of the Yakama Nation’s reservation and released.

“I had the last load, and unloaded them at 12:45 a.m.” Sunday morning, says Glenn Rasmussen of the Central Washington Chapter of Safari Club International.  “Oh, yeah (it’s exciting). This is something we’ve been working on for a long time.”


VOLUNTEERS AND OTHERS AWAIT THE ARRIVAL OF THE ANTELOPE HERD. (COURTESY SCI-CENTRAL WASHINGTON CHAPTER)

He says his organization had first tried to work with the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife on reintroduction, including doing studies of potential release sites. But when that didn’t pan out, they found that the Yakamas were interested in bringing the so-called “speed goats” back to the reservation.

“It’s their project, we just arranged the financing,” says Rasmussen.


A HELICOPTER IS USED TO HERD THE ANIMALS TOWARDS NET TRAPS. (COURTESY SCI-CENTRAL WASHINGTON CHAPTER)

He says that nine or ten bucks rode back in crates on a flatbed driven by tribal representatives.

Due to the federal holiday, Yakama wildlife officials were unavailable for comment.


TEAMS WORK TO SUBDUE AND CALM THE ANIMALS. (COURTESY SCI-CENTRAL WASHINGTON CHAPTER)

Antelope were gone from Washington by the mid-1800s, but four releases were made between the Great Depression and the Vietnam War era, according to a 2008 article by the Seattle PI. The animals hung on on the Yakima Training Center, but over time the population waned and disappeared.

“We don’t know if it was soldiers shooting them or what,” says Rasmussen.

The idea for reintroducing the species came when the club was looking for a conservation project.

“My son, Eric, made the suggestion, ‘Why don’t we reintroduce antelope into Washington?” he says.


WORKERS HOLD UP AN IV DRIP BAG FOR AN OVERHEATED ANTELOPE. (COURTESY SCI-CENTRAL WASHINGTON CHAPTER)

A year ago, it looked as if it was on, but a helicopter crash scrapped plans to trade live buffalo from the Yakamas for antelope from the Duck Valley Reservation on the Nevada-Idaho line, Rasmussen says.

He has high praise for NDOW: “Boy, that Nevada game department is efficient.”

They were assisted by Nevada Bighorns Unlimited.


A DOE IS JUST ABOUT TO BE LOADED INTO A LIVESTOCK TRAILER FOR TRANSPORTATION TO WASHINGTON. (COURTESY SCI-CENTRAL WASHINGTON CHAPTER)

After the animals were netted, they were blindfolded and hobbled and taken to a staging area where a veterinarian drew blood samples and gave them shots, Rasmussen says.

Then they were moved into waiting trailers.

“That was the rodeo part — loading them in,” he says. “Every time you opened the door, the others were jumping to get out.”


CAPTURED AND TAGGED ANTELOPE AWAIT THE BEGINNING OF THEIR JOURNEY NORTH TO WASHINGTON. (COURTESY SCI-CENTRAL WASHINGTON CHAPTER)

Ironically, the one radio-collared antelope in the bunch escaped.

Rasmussen says they were given drugs for the ride back, a rainy slog north up U.S. Highway 93 then west on I-84. He drove a couple dozen animals to Washington.

“Releasing them was real simple, and was almost an anticlimax,” he says.

One in Rasmussen’s trailer had a broken leg and had to be put down, however.


THE BUCKS WERE TRANSPORTED IN CRATES. (COURTESY SCI-CENTRAL WASHINGTON CHAPTER)

The tribe identified 40,000 acres of the reservation that would make “fair to good” habitat for the species, although there’s currently also an overpopulation of mustangs on its 1.2 million acres.

A grad student may follow the herd around, Rasmussen says.

“If there’s a huntable population, that’s fine,” he says, “but I don’t think anyone’s concerned about that. When you travel through Wyoming, it’s just nice to see them. I don’t expect to go shoot them.”


A NEW HOME, A NEW RANGE FOR A NEVADA DOE RELEASED ONTO THE YAKAMA RESERVATION SOUTH OF MABTON. (COURTESY SCI-CENTRAL WASHINGTON CHAPTER)

In other tribal wildlife releases news, last year saw the introduction of 170 turkeys onto the Tulalip Reservation north of Everett, Wash.

[carpsniperg2]

Sweet guys! Thanks for the pics and info

[400out]

great another permit application 

[zackmioli]

this is really cool news! hopefully one day we are able to have a large sustainable and huntable herd. loved seeing the speed goats out in montana!