81 Bears and 14 Wolves Killed in Alaska to Help Caribou Calves 👊

If you’re still with us, that means you’ve made it to the middle of yet another week.

With that in mind, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and get another mid-week dispatch out the door.

Here's what's worth reading about so far this week:

• Caribou management - Alaska enters second year of culling program 👊

• Doggone rescue - Fishing guide and clients save 38 hunting dogs  🐶

• Losing support - Report shows that support for hunting is on the decline 📉

• Locals only - Colorado does away with non-resident OTC elk tags 🏷️

• Mistaken identity - Idaho man cleared in bear identity mishap 🥸

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SOUND MANAGEMENT
81 BEARS AND 14 WOLVES KILLED IN ALASKA TO HELP CARIBOU CALVES

In an effort to restore the Mulchatna caribou herd, which has declined by about 94 percent since 1997, Alaskan officials are now in the second year of a new predator control program they hope will do the job. 

This year’s edition wrapped up on June 5th and resulted in the killing of 81 brown bears and 14 wolves from caribou calving grounds in Southwest Alaska.  The program, which has come under fire and even resulted in lawsuits, proved to be successful, even after just it’s first year. Following the 2023 program that saw 94 brown bears, five black bears, and five wolves removed from the landscape, Alaskan biologists reported an increase in calf survival through the fall with a caribou cow-to-calf ratio of 44 calves per 100 cows. Those numbers end up “well above the 10-year average” of 23 calves for every 100 calves, according to the agency.

“Based on last fall, I anticipate we’re going to see another pretty strong showing of calves pretty quickly,” ADFG director Ryan Scott said…

🐶 Doggone rescue - Earlier in the month, a pair of insurance agents and a fishing guide came across 38 collared hunting dogs stranded in the lake they were set to spend the day fishing on. With the captain and guide Jordan Chrestman of Tri-Lake Guide Service making the call, the trio set out to help. When they rolled up on the group of tired swimmers in Mississippi’s Grenada Lake, they began to pluck them out of the water, one-by-one. 

Given the number of dogs, the trio had to make two trips to secure all 38 of the dogs. Once they had them ashore, the question of how they ended up about a mile offshore was one they wanted answered. They later learned that the Grenada area is home to a big fox hunting community and these dogs were doing just that. That is, until they got on a whitetail that led them into the water. Once submerged, the group of hunting dogs quickly became disoriented and were lucky that the fishermen came upon them. The dogs were returned to their owners and the trio got back to fishing, but later admitted that they caught more dogs than fish on that particular outing.

📉 Support for hunting, shooting down -  This year’s edition of the report entitled Americans' Attitudes Toward Hunting and Sport Shooting 2024, conducted in collaboration with the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports (CAHSS) and the natural-resources survey firm Responsive Management, shows yet another decline in public support for everything we hold dear in this world.

This year’s survey marked a five percentage point drop from 2021’s already alarming 81% approval rating. While this year’s results are only about a percent off of last year’s numbers, they’re still trending downward.  In fact this year’s troubling numbers mark the lowest public support for hunting since 2011. 

“Although a majority of Americans have indicated that they support both of these activities, with hunting approval often being higher than that of sport shooting, trends in opinion data suggest that, in response to events that involve firearms, there is a growing tendency among some Americans to conflate hunting with shooting, shooting with guns, and their negative attitudes on guns to negative attitudes toward hunting. It is not a large segment, but enough to account for an overall decrease in support for hunting.”

🏷️ Locals only - Colorado is doing away with over-the-counter non-resident archery elk tags after complaints of overcrowding and outnumbered resident archery hunters in the Centennial State. Colorado’s Parks and Wildlife voted unanimously to abolish the tags in a meeting last week as a sort of consolation to the idea of getting rid of OTC tags altogether. 

In fact, the one vote in opposition to the change was cast by Commissioner Marie Haskett, who owns JML Outfitters and who made it known that she was interested in banishing both resident and non-resident OTC tags. Under the new system, nonresident elk hunters will soon be able to apply for archery tags in an annual draw. While most western states tend to allocate about 10% of limited non-resident elk tags, Colorado previously led the way with a whopping 25%, but is also home to the country’s largest density of elk. 

Colorado’s non-resident OTC tags were one of the last available in the west outside of Arizona. Locals and outfitters alike are looking forward to less-crowded trail heads and hopefully better elk for their clients this fall.

🥸 Mistaken identity - On June 10th a black bear hunter in Idaho pulled the trigger on what he believed to be his target animal, but quickly identified he’d accidentally killed a grizzly bear. After realizing the mistake he’d made, his first phone call was to Idaho Fish and Game, admitting to his lapse in judgement.

Wildlife officials arrived on the scene to investigate and later ruled the killing an accident. As per a release, the subadult grizz was shot in unit 6 near the southern end of Idaho’s Panhandle near St. Maries - an area not typically known for grizzly bear activity.  In Idaho, most grizzly bear activity is recorded in the northernmost area of the panhandle and areas around Yellowstone in the southeastern part of the state.

According to spokesman T.J. Ross, the hunter was given a warning but no citation for being “extremely cooperative” with the investigation. Ross admitted that he and other officials were surprised to learn about a grizz in that region of the state.

“That’s an area where we would not expect to see a grizzly bear,” Ross said.

VIDEO // ^{_{SOME THINGS JUST HAVE TO BE SEEN}}

🐢 Snapping up deer fawns: Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Watch as a couple of hikers come across an alligator snapping turtle chowing down on a deer fawn.

🫎 Triplets, Basil!: Watch as motorists capture footage of a cow moose and her triplets walking down a Maine roadway.