Hunting Washington Forum
Big Game Hunting => Other Big Game => Topic started by: norsepeak on May 07, 2010, 07:52:51 PM
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I got contacted by the local game dept. biologist last week. He said that had been getting some reports of a band of sheep in an area not know to have sheep and wanted to know if I could go help look for them. I went up two days ago and ran into the bio, so we split up and cover more ground, but found nothing....he just called me and said that they went up and flew the area and found the band of sheep! There are 11 in the group, mostly yearlings and one new lamb. So I'm going to help them on Monday and Tuesday locate them again so we can collar some of them to collect data...I'll keep you guys posted...but some good news for a change.
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Great news, keep us posted.
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cool keep us posted for sure would love to see some pics if you have a spare sec to get some
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norspeak, are you going to be looking in the Clemens unit?
Bryan
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Wandering sheep is never a good thing. I am pretty sure he was only looking in the canyon. From what I heard nothing was found that they could use to collect data.
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The band of sheep they are talking about moved over there from the Selah butte area. I meet with the bio yesterday for my Fish and Wildlife Management class and he was extremely concerned as the sheep in the Selah butte area had 0 die off from the pneumonia. These 11 represent a problem because they can pick up the bacteria and if they return to their home on the eastside of the Yakima they will infect that herd. Something that was mentioned that severely disturbed me is they have no genetic history of the sheep in this state, I think that we as hunters need to write some letters and persuade the WDFW to do some DNA profiling. They already have all the samples they need, it is just a matter of telling the state DNA lab that it is a priority. If anyone wants info about why DNA is important you can PM me.
Brandon
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pessimistic bunch.....
sheep in an area not know to have sheep
I guess when I read that I wasn't thinking canyon, Selah butte or Clemens.
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your right boneaddict, this group of sheep is about 15 miles west of Clemans. We're still trying to get some collars on them...the helicopter crew captured some sheep but from the wrong drainage...will keep ya posted as more info becomes available.
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yes unfortunately the helicopter crew captured the wrong sheep, so right now what we need is $6000 to purchase a couple more collars to fix the problem. The helicopter crew will fly for free and redo it to correct the problem. It is important to get these sheep collared as it will have an influence on the sheep grazing allotments in the area. the Bio is trying to get US forest service to come up with the money as they are the ones that put out the grazing allotments. Who knows maybe some phone calls into the Nache's US forest service office might help.
