OUTBID– For the first time since at least 1981, mule deer on Utah’s Antelope Island will be in the cross hairs of a hunter’s rifle, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

A hunter won the right to kill one buck later this year on the 26,000-acre Utah state park with a bid of $265,000 during the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo held last weekend in Salt Lake City.

Hunting groups had been trying to get the Antelope Island hunting tags for more than a decade. One tag was approved last summer on a one-year trial basis, with the requirement that 90 percent of the money from the auctioned tags be used for wildlife habitat improvements on the island.

“I want the money going into habitat improvements, not toilet paper and plungers,” said Miles Moretti, president of the Utah-based Mule Deer Foundation, which helped auction the tag.  

The hunt will be the easy part. The deer are virtually tame.