Field Reports: Wyoming bison possible record
A bison stands to break an 82-year-old record after a hunter killed it last month in western Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest.
The bison’s horns measured 32 inches from tip to tip and 18 and 19 inches individually, giving the animal a hunting score of 140-2/8. The previous record, a bison killed in Yellowstone National Park in 1925, scored 136-4/8.
For the record to become official, the bison’s head will need to dry for 60 days.
E.D. Riekens Jr., of Cheyenne, shot the bison near Spread Creek on Sept. 18.
“When I saw this guy, it was like I was looking at a dinosaur or a mammoth,” Riekens said. “This guy was just so different and massive and huge. There was no question about whether I would hold off. It just had to be done.”
The Jackson Bison Herd has grown to around 1,200 animals, damaging plants in Grand Teton National Park and the National Elk Refuge and reducing natural forage for elk and moose. Hunting began this year on the refuge, where managers ultimately hope to reduce the bison herd to 500.
Associated Press
HUNTING
City deer get reprieve
Montana wildlife commissioners recently sidelined a proposal that would have allowed for paid sharpshooters to kill some of the Helena’s mule deer, a burgeoning population loathed by some residents and treasured by others.
“What you’re seeing is a concern about entering into something that is going to commit a lot of department time, not just here in Helena but in other municipalities, and a reluctance to spend sportsmen dollars to manage non-huntable populations,” Commissioner Shane Colton said.
Surveys have indicated Helena has about 500 deer and the population could triple in three years if left unchecked. The city has received complaints of deer colliding with cars, intimidating people, attacking pets and trampling gardens. Authorities have killed at least a dozen deer deemed unsafe.
Helena had budgeted about $30,000 for the sharpshooters and other work to control the deer starting this fall. The proposal called for the shooting of up to 350 deer.
Associated Press
WILDLIFE AREAS
Reardan grass restored
Grassland restoration at Reardan’s Audubon Lake looks a lot like farming – because it is.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is mowing, harrowing and fallowing portions of the 277-acre state wildlife viewing area just north of Reardan in a long-term effort to eradicate weeks and restore native vegetation.
By 2011, the fields on the north side of the property will be converted to native grasses, with a mix of forbs and legumes, and the south fields will have native grasses and forbs in the drier upland areas and waterfowl-friendly crops in the wetland areas, said Howard Ferguson, department biologist.
The goal: more cover and food and better nesting for native songbirds, mule deer, and upland game species such as pheasant and Hungarian partridge.
Rich Landers
WILDLIFE
Bullfrogs bad news
Utah wildlife officials are alarmed over the presence of American bullfrogs.
The frogs were in a pond at Roosevelt Golf Course and have moved elsewhere in the Uinta Basin in eastern Utah, 150 miles east of Salt Lake City.
“One of our biologists recently found one in the Uinta Mountains, just inside the national Forest Service boundary,” said Trina Hedrick of the Division of Wildlife Resources. “This isn’t good news.”
The American bullfrog is native to the eastern U.S. It is illegal to possess or transport one in Utah, Hedrick said Thursday.
“Bullfrogs are voracious predators,” she said in a statement. “They’ll eat almost anything, including snakes, worms, insects, crustaceans, fish, frogs, toads and salamanders.”
The bullfrogs have contributed to the decline of the leopard frog in Arizona and other frogs, toads and salamanders in California, Hedrick said.
They can live as long as nine years, longer in captivity, she said.
Associated Press
HUNTING
Bat foils river trip
A bat that bit a river runner in Grand Canyon National Park has been found to be rabid and the man who was bitten will need to receive rabies treatment.
The incident happened this month at Lees Ferry when the bat flew into the river runner’s shirt, which was lying next to him as he was loading his boat with supplies.
When the man put his shirt back on, the bat bit him on the left hip.
The bat was captured, euthanized and submitted for testing. The Arizona State Health Lab determined the next day that the bat had rabies. The National Park Service evacuated the victim out of the canyon by helicopter last Thursday.
In the United States, the treatment consists of a regimen of one dose of immune globulin and five doses of rabies vaccine over a 28-day period.
Associated Press