AK Sheep, Population Observations

[Snyd]

We saw over 50 rams on the first hunt this season and many were in bands of 4-6. No full curls, but 3 were aged at 8 years old. 3 half curl rams solo. 60-70 ewes with very few lambs and a few young rams running with them. 3 winter kill rams with two being half curl and 1 full curl. Golden eagles galore. Heading back out in a couple days to close out the season.

What mountain range?

 

[Atigun]

What mountain range?

Talkeetnas. I should add that with the exception of pre season scouting this was my first time in this particular area so I have no previous years observations to compare with.

 

[CHL]

Yes my first time as well in there. But pilot said he has seen what he said were “good” numbers of Rams last two years as well in there.

 

[ColeyG]

We saw over 50 rams on the first hunt this season and many were in bands of 4-6. No full curls, but 3 were aged at 8 years old. 3 half curl rams solo. 60-70 ewes with very few lambs and a few young rams running with them. 3 winter kill rams with two being half curl and 1 full curl. Golden eagles galore. Heading back out in a couple days to close out the season.

Those seem like good numbers for the Talkeetna's and glad to hear there are decent numbers of younger rams on the way up there.

 

[william schmaltz]

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING OF THE ALASKA BOARD OF GAME

Notice is given that the Alaska Board of Game (Board) will hold a non-regulatory, informative meeting via web-conference at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 19, 2022. The main purpose of the board meeting is to receive a report from the Department of Fish and Game on recent survey and harvest data of Dall sheep, and future management considerations.

The meeting is open to the public via live audio stream at www.boardofgame.adfg.alaska.gov. No oral testimony will be taken.

The Board will accept written public comment, due no later than Thursday, October 13, 2022. Written comments may be submitted on the Board’s website at www.boardofgame.adfg.alaska.gov; faxed to (907) 465-6094; or mailed to Boards Support Section, P.O. Box 115526, Juneau, AK 99811-5526.

The meeting agenda, reports, and other meeting materials will available online at https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=gameboard.meetinginfo&date=10-19-2022&meeting=webconference. For more information about the meeting, contact the Department of Fish and Game, Boards Support Section at (907) 465-6098.

 

[ColeyG]

With the 2023 AK sheep season winding down, I am curious to hear from some folks who have spent time in the hills this year and what they saw for sheep numbers, historic comparisons that can be offered, lamb recruitment observations, etc.

I spent a week in GMU 13 for the opening week in a place that was mostly new to me. For the first time in the last 3 sheep trips we found a few legal rams. Two in a group of seven looked pretty good. One full curl that I aged at 7, another older but less than full. Unfortunately between weather and them leaving the valley, we never caught up with them.

The lamb-to-ewe ratio in the area looked to be pretty terrible. For 3 different groups of lambs and ewes, the avg. was about 1 lamb for 8-9 ewes.

The only other ram we saw on the trip was a young ram, 4-5 years old, all by himself and running scared. We saw him each day for 3 days and he was constantly on the move. I don't recall seeing this, single young rams, until a few years ago. Seems to be a relatively recent phenomena?

The anecdotal reports from around the group of friends and acquaintances seems to indicate another record low harvest year. How could it be anything different. Lots of good hunters striking out. The good guides seem to be getting theirs but working hard for them. The super cub cowboys have found some good rams but are complaining about having to burn a lot of gas to get it done.

What has everyone else been seeing in AK this year?

 

[VernAK]

Hunted the DCUA last week for my cousins tag and it is slim pickings for older rams. Saw 15 rams and 2 of those were solid maybes. Sheep seem to be real spread out as well. Hunted the same area 5 years ago on my tag and saw 30 rams with 10 being clearly legal. couple more years with good winters and hunting should be good though.

Did you see many caribou in DCUA? We aren't seeing many on this West end.

 

[Bambistew]

I spent 16 days sheep hunting this year, in two different ranges.

We saw less than 1/2 the sheep we see historically in one area I've hunted for many year, but lamb numbers were much higher than normal. Probably 70% of ewes had lambs. The other area, was a first time, so not sure how it compared to historically, saw 40-50% ewes with lambs or about normal, and a few yearlings in the group. We looked at a lot of country and saw probably the vast majority of sheep in the areas we hunted, spotting many/most sheep several days over. I documented best I could age class, numbers, etc, and usually do every year. We saw one decent ram. Couldn't get a bullet in him, and he moved a long ways between sightings. The outfitter shot two rams out of one area, neither we would have shot due to iffy-ness on legality, both were 8, neither were FC. I saw them both in hand.

The sad thing was rams between 1-3 were next to non-existent. Usually they should make up about half the rams we see. We saw an ok number of mid-age rams (4-7), but again less than half of normal. We saw 2 older rams that were likely 9-10+, neither FC, just stacked up rings or it looked like and heavy, Those old looking rams, but we weren't shooting based on rings, both were broomed one side as well, but 30-32" at best.

We didn't' shoot a ram on either hunt, just didn't have the opportunity to, or see much to shoot. From what I heard the harvest was tracking last year or just a little behind. About what I expected. IMO, harvest is going to fall off a cliff in a few years based on the lack of young rams out there. The winter 10-11 years ago we had almost twice as many sheep on the landscape as 2 years ago. Not hard to figure out, if the ram harvest went from 700/year to 400 last year, and we now have half as many sheep as we did 10 years ago... we'll e looking at ram harvest in the 200-300s.

Those bad winters equal dead lambs, dead yearlings, and aborted lambs, plus higher than normal winter kill.

Really little we can do but hope for better winters and shoot predators if given the opportunity. Still fun to get out and see the country and chase a ram or two. I just hope they recover enough so my kids can enjoy hunting them too.

 

[DBMR]

Walked 61.7miles from 7 Aug - 16 Aug. Glassed hundreds of square miles. Total numbers:
23 ewes/lambs (most ewes had lambs) but im sure some of these were the same sheep that i saw on different days
5 sub legal rams with one of those about 1.5" under full curl.

Last year walked maybe 15 miles from 9 Aug -11 Aug and saw 12 rams (6 were "day one shooters") and 30 ewes/lambs. Took a 10yr old ram on the 11th of Aug so I was back to strip rather quick.

Not an apples to apples comparison but I was in the exact same area (6years in a row now) and this year was demoralizing, sad and frustrating. Not sure if it was a localized die off more so than a complete mountain range die off or a "move out" of the traditional sheep population. I saw little evidence to show a die off this last winter/spring (carcasses/dead heads etc) but I could be just missing these by pure luck. But the mileage and glassing time was so much to produce so little results, I am just at a loss for words to describe it.

 

[ColeyG]

I wish it was just a local problem. With the exception of a few smaller pockets of sheep that seem to be doing OK, the trend across the state is most populations are down 40-70% over historic averages. Several areas that have historically supported small populations of sheep are without any animals at all. I know of two examples from this years surveys where that is the case.

Another troubling trend that seems to be emerging over the last few years is the average age of rams killed. I've been hearing of lots of 6-7 year old sheep getting killed, potentially half or more of the total. The current "science" and management practices say that the FC/8/broomer harvest requirements limit harvest to old rams that aren't needed to maintain/sustain herds on a population level. Seems like we might have to take a look at that if a bunch of 6-7yo rams are dying each year.

To think that not long ago, we were seeing 1200+ rams taken each year. My how things have changed.

 

[akwchil]

$250 dollar bounty paid by the state for each wolf shot. $50 per coyote. Golden Eagle populations need to be studied and cropped a bit by predator control. There are some areas where hunting pairs of Golden Eagles have gotten too good at cropping ewes and lambs. They force bands of sheep into some more marginal feeding areas and that impacts winter survival. I am not going to say more about it but predator control is key. There are some areas of the state because of access and expenses of transportation that actually have numbers of mature "trophy" rams. The golden days of TMA and DCUA are over. Central and more western Alaska range are getting pummeled. Eventually the North Wrangells will start to fall because of hunting pressure. Those very effective Golden Eagle pairs need to be cropped in the Chugach, Kenai, Talkeetna and Central Alaska Ranges.

does anyone know what the percentage of die-off is contributed to predation?

 

[AK_Skeeter]

Minor compared to deep crusty snow that will not blow off windy slopes, rain on snow events, thick ice glazing.

 

[AK_Skeeter]

I wish it was just a local problem. With the exception of a few smaller pockets of sheep that seem to be doing OK, the trend across the state is most populations are down 40-70% over historic averages. Several areas that have historically supported small populations of sheep are without any animals at all. I know of two examples from this years surveys where that is the case.

Another troubling trend that seems to be emerging over the last few years is the average age of rams killed. I've been hearing of lots of 6-7 year old sheep getting killed, potentially half or more of the total. The current "science" and management practices say that the FC/8/broomer harvest requirements limit harvest to old rams that aren't needed to maintain/sustain herds on a population level. Seems like we might have to take a look at that if a bunch of 6-7yo rams are dying each year.

To think that not long ago, we were seeing 1200+ rams taken each year. My how things have changed.

In Alaska the typical annual harvest has been about 700 rams a year for the past 25 years. 800+ is a high year.

 

[akwchil]

that average is going to drop for sure, doubt we see that number again for a long time.

 

[ColeyG]

does anyone know what the percentage of die-off is contributed to predation?

Based on what I recall, mortality in adult sheep has not and cannot really be studied very effectively for a wide variety of reasons.

In a number of studies done on lamb mortality, predation has accounted for 40%-95% of lamb mortality depending on the study, area, etc.

Winter vs. predators seems to be the big black hole of information with regard to adult survival. In the places that I have spent time in sheep country, it is really hard to fathom predators being the primary culprit of population decline. I think they take their cut, but old man winter seems to be be the primary factor in most areas I think.

Weather like the storm that is forecasted for the next few days in south central (heavy precip, warm temps to 2500') is not helpful...

 

[ColeyG]

We won't break 400 this year after trending down hard the last 2.

I’ve been told that once a population fails to replace its dead for one full lifecycle, extinction is inevitable.

Based on current lamb-to-ewe ratios and overall #s, the outlook is terrible to say the least.

 

[AK_Skeeter]

I wish it was just a local problem. With the exception of a few smaller pockets of sheep that seem to be doing OK, the trend across the state is most populations are down 40-70% over historic averages. Several areas that have historically supported small populations of sheep are without any animals at all. I know of two examples from this years surveys where that is the case.

Another troubling trend that seems to be emerging over the last few years is the average age of rams killed. I've been hearing of lots of 6-7 year old sheep getting killed, potentially half or more of the total. The current "science" and management practices say that the FC/8/broomer harvest requirements limit harvest to old rams that aren't needed to maintain/sustain herds on a population level. Seems like we might have to take a look at that if a bunch of 6-7yo rams are dying each year.

To think that not long ago, we were seeing 1200+ rams taken each year. My how things have changed.

What year were there "1200+ rams " harvested in Alaska?

 

[Atigun]

What year were there "1200+ rams " harvested in Alaska?

I believe 1986 - 1991 were all above 1200 rams harvested.

 

[ColeyG]

I believe 1986 - 1991 were all above 1200 rams harvested.

According to the ADFG harvest stats web site:

1985 = 1129 sheep
1986 = 1300
1987 = 1364
1988 = 1441
1989 = 1454
1990 = 1407
1991 = 1418
1992 = 1108
1993 = 1105
1994 = 1026
1995 = 1138

11 year average = 1263

 

[ColeyG]

From the 2022 ADFG/BOG presentation