Hunting Washington Forum

Big Game Hunting => Other Big Game => Topic started by: RPM on December 21, 2008, 06:03:47 PM


Advertise Here
Title: wa. caribou
Post by: RPM on December 21, 2008, 06:03:47 PM
the antelope thing got me thinking. have any of you north east guys seen or took pics of the  caribou we;re suposed to have?
Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: EastWaViking on December 21, 2008, 06:45:53 PM
Never seen them, but I guess there are a few woodland caribou that are in the far NW corner.
Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: huntnphool on December 21, 2008, 06:54:57 PM
the closest thing Washington has to caribou hit the border every year December 25th, other than that I thinks its a pipe dream anymore, those days are long past I'm affraid. :dunno:
Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: EastWaViking on December 21, 2008, 07:17:01 PM
I don't know, a few years ago I was at the Sullivan Lake feeding station watching the sheep, and one of the people there said it wasn't too uncommon to have a woodland
caribou come in and eat.
Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: deerslyr on December 22, 2008, 06:36:04 PM
I know a guy up in North Port that has a few of their sheds that he found up there...
Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: bobcat on December 22, 2008, 06:44:54 PM
This is what the WDFW has to say about Caribou in this state:

Quote
The woodland (or mountain) caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) are considered to be the most endangered large mammal in the lower 48 states. Woodland caribou were historically distributed throughout many of the northern states including, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Vermont, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Washington. Outside of Canada, woodland caribou are now found only in the Selkirk Mountains of Idaho and Washington. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service first listed the woodland caribou as endangered in 1984. This cooperatively funded project started in 1995. Objectives of the study are designed to significantly increase the endangered population of woodland caribou in the Selkirk Mountains of Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia.
Our plan is to transplant over 60 caribou from central B.C. to the far northeastern corner of Washington in Pend Oreille County. Caribou are captured on snow-covered ridges in nets that are shot over animal from a special rifle fired by a biologist in a helicopter. After a three-day disease quarantine held in a corral, the caribou are trucked to the Selkirks release site, roughly 18 hours away.

Once the animals are released, biologists monitor their movements, habitat use, and overall survival. By studying marked caribou, we hope to identify important habitats, specific food items, travel corridors, movement patterns, calf reproduction and survival, survival of adults, and causes of mortality. We also have radio-collared some of the resident caribou in Washington to allow for a comparison with the transplanted animals.

Keep your eyes open for new developments on this site. We will be creating a related website called "Track-A-Bou" . This site will allow us to provide current research and management information to school children. The program will allow interested readers to follow our research on a monthly basis, and even retrieve data from the Internet and manipulate these data on their own computer, or in the classroom as a group.


There's more info if you go here:  http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/research/caribou/caribou.htm



Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: RPM on December 22, 2008, 08:31:29 PM
thanx for all the info
Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: SHANE(WA) on December 23, 2008, 12:03:42 AM
they are up there still, republic area had a sighting last winter. some locals in Northport who see them every now and then
Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: WAcoyotehunter on December 23, 2008, 09:03:41 AM
There are a few in the Salmo Priest Wildeness Area, but they are in trouble.  The population is pretty low. It would be really nice to get them going again!  I read old newspaper accounts of locals going up there to get their caribou for the year!  Maybe one day we can.
Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: Ray on December 23, 2008, 09:04:46 AM
The wolves ate them all when they moved in.
Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: WDFW-SUX on December 23, 2008, 09:13:38 AM
Someone on here has some pics of the washington bou..........

Boneaddict?
Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: croix on December 23, 2008, 09:29:08 AM
The wolves ate them all when they moved in.

May be some truth in this. I talked to some ol' boys in Ione a few years back and they said that the initial release of six caribou in the wildlife viewing area near Meadowlake resulted in six carcasses. May not have been wolves though. More likely related to the grizzlies that were introduced to the viewing area the year before. Brilliant.
Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: Skyvalhunter on December 23, 2008, 09:31:49 AM
Now that's classic!!!
Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: WAcoyotehunter on December 23, 2008, 09:38:29 AM
The wolves ate them all when they moved in.

May be some truth in this. I talked to some ol' boys in Ione a few years back and they said that the initial release of six caribou in the wildlife viewing area near Meadowlake resulted in six carcasses. May not have been wolves though. More likely related to the grizzlies that were introduced to the viewing area the year before. Brilliant.

There have been no grizzly introductions up there.  It's more likely that it was cats eating them, although wolves will undoubtedly eat a few of the bous if they get the chance. 
I'll continue to push for habitat work and smarter logging practices to enhance the populations of all the animals (yes wolves too) because the land can support predators and prey animals if we take better care of it.  Spray the weeds and harvest trees with that in mind...we can have both.
Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: Machias on December 23, 2008, 02:54:51 PM
The wolves ate them all when they moved in.

May be some truth in this. I talked to some ol' boys in Ione a few years back and they said that the initial release of six caribou in the wildlife viewing area near Meadowlake resulted in six carcasses. May not have been wolves though. More likely related to the grizzlies that were introduced to the viewing area the year before. Brilliant.

There have been no grizzly introductions up there.  It's more likely that it was cats eating them, although wolves will undoubtedly eat a few of the bous if they get the chance. 
I'll continue to push for habitat work and smarter logging practices to enhance the populations of all the animals (yes wolves too) because the land can support predators and prey animals if we take better care of it.  Spray the weeds and harvest trees with that in mind...we can have both.


 :yeah:
Title: Re: wa. caribou
Post by: fc2038 on December 24, 2008, 12:00:01 AM
thanks for the info. My uncle used to live in Eureka MT. He said the same thing I called BS on his ass. Looks like I owe him a little appology :'(
SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2025, SimplePortal