http://ravallirepublic.com/missoula/news/local/article_0eeb1cf1-7711-5071-b2f9-5a771dc612a9.html December 11, 2015 6:30 pm • By Rob Chaney Hunters, landowners and state wildlife managers will all be looking at how a test extension of the elk hunting season works out in central Montana. Read more BILLINGS - While the antlerless elk shoulder season in four Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 4 hunting districts will continue straight through… Read more Some big game could become fair game for half the year if elk shoulder season rules get adopted by the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission. The commissioners reviewed a lengthy list of hunting districts where elk seek sanctuary on private land that might be opened to antlerless harvest as early as August to as late as February. They also stressed any decision on the…
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Officers need your help This winter is not a good time to try to kill a mule deer illegally in Utah. Conservation officers with the Division of Wildlife Resources are conducting massive patrols on ranges on which deer congregate in the winter. They're conducting the patrols with one goal in mind: to protect Utah's mule deer from poachers. Tony Wood, chief of the DWR's Law Enforcement Section, says in the winter, deer congregate on ranges at lower elevations. As large groups of deer bunch together, they provide poachers with an enticing target. But the deers' behavior helps wildlife officers too: it directs them to areas where poaching will most likely happen. Officers aren't focusing their efforts entirely on popular winter…
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http://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2015/11/29/black-bear-population-healthy-growing-new-strategies-for-hunt/#.Vlxg9ISS4p8 SOUTHERN UTAH — A new black bear strategy, started in Utah in 2015, did exactly what wildlife managers hoped it would: It led to government agencies taking fewer bears and hunters taking more bears. In 2014, hunters and government agencies took a total of 378 bears in Utah. In 2015, despite putting more hunters in the field, the number taken declined to 370. Leslie McFarlane, mammals coordinator for Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources, said biologists are happy with the results. Division of Wildlife Resources reports a new black bear hunting strategy is working in Utah. Utah, Nov. 20, 2015 | Photo by Lynn Chamberlain, Division of Wildlife Resources, St. George News“The strategies implemented last year gave more hunters an opportunity to hunt…
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http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/wolf-issue-back-in-wildlifes-crosshairs By Dennis Webb Sunday, November 22, 2015 Concern among the governors of the Four Corners states over federal recovery plans for the Mexican wolf has prompted the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to look at again weighing in on the issue of wolves more generally. The agency on Friday considered a draft resolution that would reaffirm positions taken in the 1980s in which it opposed the reintroduction of wolves — and for that matter, grizzly bears — into the state because of concerns about impacts to livestock, wildlife and human welfare. However, it put off any action until later, in part to consider ensuring that it’s also consistent with the recommendations made by a Wolf Working Group and adopted…
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PHOENIX – Tired of waiting for results of a hunt draw to be made public to find out if there's a permit-tag with your name on it? The Arizona Game and Fish Department has the solution: Open up a Customer Portal account. It's quick, easy, and – best of all – it's free. Beginning with the 2016 spring hunt draw, those hunters who have Portal accounts will have the ability to view their draw results a day or two before the results actually are released. The Portal allows customers to create a secure account where they can manage and view their contact information, as well as their license and draw results information and bonus points, in their personal "My AZ…
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Thursday, November 19, 2015 http://thewesterner.blogspot.com/2015/11/scientists-want-wolves-removed-from.html A group of leading wolf scientists are urging the western Great Lakes population of gray wolves be removed from protections of the Endangered Species Act. The 26 scientists, including Dave Mech of the University of Minnesota and Adrian Wydeven of the Timber Wolf Alliance, argue the species has successfully recovered in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin and should be delisted. "It is in the best interests of gray wolf conservation and for the integrity of the Endangered Species Act for wolves to be delisted in the western Great Lakes states where biological recovery has occurred and where adequate regulatory mechanisms are in place to manage the species," wrote the scientists in a letter delivered Wednesday to…
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http://www.wisconsinagconnection.com/story-state.php?Id=1353&yr=2015 Wisconsin Ag Connection - 11/18/2015 State wildlife officials will continue testing harvested white-tailed deer for chronic wasting disease this year. This testing is part of the DNR's ongoing efforts to monitor the status and spread of the disease in Wisconsin. "We provide testing as a service to deer hunters, but it is also important in our efforts to monitor the distribution and prevalence of the disease," said Tami Ryan, DNR wildlife health section chief. "We will continue testing and tracking this disease within our long-term monitoring areas in southern Wisconsin where CWD is regularly found. Long-term monitoring provides useful data that increases our understanding of CWD dynamics and impacts." The agency will be testing deer from select areas of…
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First of six "open houses" scheduled for Monday PHOENIX – The Arizona Game and Fish Department has scheduled a series of six "open houses" for its constituents to review and ask questions about the proposed pronghorn antelope, elk, and population management hunt recommendations. The department annually makes hunt recommendations to the Arizona Game and Fish Commission regarding the management of game species, which establish the seasons, dates, bag limits, open areas and permit-tag allocations based on the framework of the hunt guidelines set by the commission every two years. The proposed hunt recommendations will be posted Friday, Nov. 20, at www.azgfd.gov/huntguidelines. The open houses will be conducted at the following Game and Fish regional offices: Monday, Nov. 23: 3-5 p.m., Kingman,…
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By CHRISTINE PETERSON Casper Star-Tribune Published:November 9, 2015 7:44AM Wyoming could become the first state in the country to formally recognize some of the most cutting-edge big game research. CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — Nearly all of Wyoming’s big game animals migrate, and in much the same way. They wander from lush, green mountains in the summer to dry, wind-swept prairies in the winter. And recent mule deer research has shown their movements are surprisingly precise. Pathways trickle together like county roads that merge into highways before becoming interstates. Those paths, with food-rich spots along the way, allow Wyoming’s elk, deer and pronghorn to take advantage of the best seasonal vegetation available in an arid, high-elevation state. It’s what keeps…
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Montana wildlife officials said yesterday that two grizzly bears were killed last week in separate incidents reported by hunters in southwestern Montana. A lone female grizzly bear reportedly surprised a man hunting elk at Big Creek north of Gardiner on Oct. 28. The hunter reported to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks that he came upon the bear feeding on a carcass in the brush and that the bear charged him. The hunter said he first used bear spray to deter the attack then shot the bear in self defense. The second incident was reported on Oct. 31 by a group of elk hunters who said they came upon and surprised a female grizzly bear with two young bears at Johnson…
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