Sheep Changes Coming
- Thread starter sheephunter
- Start date
- Location
- AB foothills
Thanks LBL! One of the single best posts in this whole thread, very well said.
Fist time posting on this forum but I have been following this issue with great interest. There is plenty of research out there showing the benefits to the health of our sheep herd by shifting the majority of the ram harvest to an older age class of ram than we are currently harvesting. The change will benifit our sheep in the long run. There will be short term pain for us as hunters but it is in the best interest of the sheep and keeps us hunting without forcing us into having it go to a draw in order to get the ram population over the managements post season goal of 5%.
Neither ram got scored but the scoring of a ram is not the issue. Both rams where aged by fish and wildlife and both rams would be considered mature by any sheep hunter. Hence the fact that even a trophy mature ram does not have to be full curl. My question to everyone on this tread is: how many sheep have you shot, would you consider a trophy? And how many of those sheep are full curl?
Everyone talks about the added hunting pressure on sheep. But can you prove that there are more sheep hunters now then there where 5, 10, 20 years ago? And if you can, how many more sheep hunters? And is that number enough to make this substantial decline in the Alberta sheep population?
Even though FGR's ram was taken in BC. He proved a ram that would be considered "younger" can also be full curl and also makes the books. So where is the argument that being a full curl automatically makes a ram mature and ready to be harvested?
Even though FGR's ram was taken in BC. He proved a ram that would be considered "younger" can also be full curl and also makes the books. So where is the argument that being a full curl automatically makes a ram mature and ready to be harvested?
The licence sales numbers are in the sheep management plan. There has been a significant increase in licence sales over time. Since the late 90's early 2000's licence sales have increased by 400-450 or so per year.
The issue is not with a decline in sheep herd numbers but in the composition of the ram herd. We are leaving to few mature rams post season to do the breeding which is detrimental to herd health. Some of the issues it causes is increase energy expenditure by ewes being pushed relentlessly by younger rams. This affects lamb reproduction as the energy expenditure is greatly increased at a hard time of the year. Young rams may also stay near the ewe herd through the winter rather than being led to ram ranges by mature males, competing for a limited food source. Heavy participation in the rut by younger rams also leads to higher mortality in that age class leading to fewer sub legal rams surviving the winter. The rut in bighorn sheep evolved so that in a natural state large horned mature rams do the majority of the breeding. By removing almost all of that class of ram we are affecting the health of the sheep herd. That is the issue we need to address.
Surprisingly not...1,926 resident sheep hunters in 1994 and 2,216 in 2011. I don't have stats from the past three years but I've been told that the change is minimal. There has been little change in hunting pressure and harvest has decreased slightly. If there's pressure it's from shrinking winter range and increased predators....not hunters. Young rams breed just fine.
ht tp://esrd.alberta.ca/fish-wildlife/wildlife-management/documents/TrophyBighornSheepManagementInAlberta-Feb03-2012.pdf
Since 2006 there have been roughly 10% more licensed hunters than the (1992-2011) average.
And equipment has improved, some areas have better access to hunters, more disposable income etc.
Sheep are under more pressure and although I would like to not accept any of the responsibility and blame predators/lack of burns etc, I think it all adds up.
And anyone in the cattle business knows you don't send yearling bulls out to cover a large herd in tough terrain. I pick up what you are saying Bvw. We need some of those mature rams to keep the sync in the herds.
Since 2006 there have been roughly 10% more licensed hunters than the (1992-2011) average.
And equipment has improved, some areas have better access to hunters, more disposable income etc.
Sheep are under more pressure and although I would like to not accept any of the responsibility and blame predators/lack of burns etc, I think it all adds up.
And anyone in the cattle business knows you don't send yearling bulls out to cover a large herd in tough terrain. I pick up what you are saying Bvw. We need some of those mature rams to keep the sync in the herds.
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if this is how you interpret the data I can see how it would be difficult to understand trends. It is difficult to show a trend on a data set by cherry picking two independent years of data and suggesting they describe what is happening. You need to look at the whole dataset
The five years from 95-99 averaged 1842 licences, five years from 07-11 averaged 2237 so that is 395 more on average. So that's about a 21% increase surprisingly. Significant numbers.
Geist and other notable researchers would disagree with your contention that young rams breed just fine. They maybe able to get the job done but it is far from an ideal rut to have class 3 rams doing the majority of the breeding
This is one of the strangest theories in game management that is forever being put forward. The theory goes that a young male animal will be able to breed the female of the species, but the babies produced by the young male will have inferior genes, as compared to a baby produced by an old male.
Sorry, but I just can't believe that one!
It has nothing to do with inferior genes being passed along or anything like that. The sheep rut takes place during a hard time of year when resources are scarce for the herd. Young Class 3 Rams doing most of the breeding causes greater energy expenditure and mortality in that segment of the population. It also causes excess energy expenditure in the ewe segment. Young Rams are relentless in their pursuit of ewes in estrous. Older Rams bring some order to the rut by keeping younger Rams in line so they are not wasting precious energy at a bad time of the year. This leads to better survival of class 3 Rams thrugh the winter. There is also less pursuit of ewes in estrous so their energy expenditure decreases as well leading to better lamb production in the spring when class 4 Rams are doing most of the breeding. (If sheep rutted and then had a period after till lambing when food sources were abundant it wouldn't matter.) With no older Rams left post rut some Rams will not leave the ewe herd to go to a separate winter range. Instead they will remain with the ewes and compete with the ewes for scarce food supplies.
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You were the one that said it was going up 400 hunters a year since the late 90s....I was just pointing out that was not remotely true. Hunter numbers don't really mean a lot anyhow. It's harvest numbers that matter. Harvest is controlled by the 4/5 curl requirement. Adding more hunters into the equation won't change the harvest numbers significantly.
Young rams breed just fine when older rams aren't present. The other thing we must look at is when mature ram numbers increase, so does competition and rams are more stressed at the end of rut leading to increased mortality. When we aren't concerned about overall population numbers but rather ram numbers, decreasing mortality of rams must factor into things as well. The other thing to consider is that as breeding competition increases so too does fighting, leading to increased brooming and the likelihood of less legal rams. It's not totally black and white...there are many factors to consider. I'm sure those that hunt WMU400 routinely have no shortage of stories of big mature broomed rams that aren't legal. I suspect they outnumber the legal ones.
Neither can the bulk of the scientific community but sadly we have one very senior bio in Alberta that's ready to retire and proving the genetic harm theory has been his life's work and this regulation change will justify all the time he invested in trying to prove it. It's being rammed (pardon the pun) down our throats despite the bulk of the scientific community saying it's bunk.
I do find it more than a bit interesting that the average age of rams harvested in Alberta (where the vast majority of WMUs are 4/5) is higher than in WMU400 where full curl regulations are in place. Perhaps this 4/5 thing is working after all.
My fingers aren't keeping up with the brain. I did mean to say it has gone up 400 or so licences per year on average, not 400 per year compounding. My apologies for the misunderstanding but I think you got the drift but if not ok then.
Your theory that ram numbers increasing being correlated to competition and therefore increased brooming is flawed. It is more related to dynamic of the ram herd. More class 3 and lower in the makeup leads to more fighting, more class 4 in the makeup leads to less fighting.
As for broomed Rams I believe we should be fighting for the ability to harvest Rams between 4/5 and full curl and/or 8+ years old. This would pretty much allow us to meet the management goal while still offer plenty of hunting opportunity. The issue then becomes how do you manage that etc etc. definition of broomed, aging would be problematic.
I'm still confused by this statement. It is most definitely not going up 400 licences per year....It hasn't gone up 400 in total since 1994. In fact the exact number is 290.
If bighorns were easier to field age and to age when in your hands like thinhorns are, I agree, an 8 year restriction would likely be a great option to consider but the truth is, we are very near an 8 year old harvest average in the province anyhow so we are extremely close to meeting that goal. Perhaps all the education is working and people are targeting older rams.....
