Well, that is a wrap for sheep season for me. It has been three full seasons since I last laid eyes on a legal ram. I'd like to think I haven't gotten worse as a sheep hunter as more time has gone by, but I am certainly beginning to wonder. As much as I would like to believe that maybe I am the problem and suck at sheep hunting, sadly, I think the problem is much larger at the moment.
The sheep numbers overall, and beyond that, numbers of mature rams in Alaska is absolutely dismal. Definitely a continuation of the downward trend over the last handful of years and this will be the case for years to come if, and that is a big IF, winter conditions are conducive to high survival rates. In the last 4 years I've spent time on multiple trip in the Wrangells, AK Range, and Chugach, and in most places, it just seems like the age class of legal rams is just plain missing.
I spent time in three distinctly different areas on two 7-9 day trips this year and didn't see any rams bigger than 3/4 curl, and a fraction of the sheep that these areas traditionally hold. As usual, we covered a lot of ground and looked over a lot of ridges and into a ton of valleys logging about 145 miles on foot. In many places, sheep were just absent. No fresh sign, grass and weeds growing in ridgetop best. In others places, a smattering of ewes, a few lambs, and occasionally a single 4-5 year old ram might be found.
For the last few years I've been seeing something that strikes me a highly unusual, lone immature rams, and single 3-4 year old rams hanging out with ewes and lambs. Finally late in my second trip this year I saw a group of 3 small rams, but by and large most of the rams we've been seeing were singles, which, based on my experience, is highly unusual for young rams.
We documented approximately 12 winter killed sheep in 2 valleys in the Wrangells this year as well. Obviously we only saw a small percentage of the terrain in these valley's close enough to make such observations, which really makes me wonder how many actually died there.
I continue to hear of similar experiences from hunters and guides that have been in the game for a while and know what "normal" is, and this ain't normal.
Of course plenty of hunters have enjoyed success, and of course some old and very nice rams have been harvested. It will be very interesting to see how this years harvest and participation rates compare to last year's, the lowest on record for rams sealed. It will also be interesting, and I am sure depressing, to see how many sub-legal rams were taken. It was approaching 10% of the known take halfway through the season according to some bios I talked to.
Tough times for sheep and sheep hunters here in AK.