New Mexico Pronghorn numbers down

[Gila]

Recent fawn recruitment data shows a rather concerning decline in the herds. The North East counties in particular. There may be fewer private land tags sold over the counter as well as public draw tags. Which counties that are affected and how many tags will be allocated should be finalized (I hope) at the upcoming Game commission meeting on Jan 10. Minutes of the meeting will be available to the public.

Actually the fawn recruitment - doe survival data is from 2019-2023 however the number of reduced tags will affect the fall season.

 

[Gila]

I have yet to see the minutes of the commission meeting on the 10th. However the results came out in the long awaited Hunting rules and info booklet just minutes after the meeting was adjourned. The results are clear, they put a cap on the quota of over-the-counter private land authorizations what-ever that number is I plan to find out. As I had previously surmised, they reduced the number of tags in the public draw so that residents and non-residents alike will have less opportunity to hunt on public lands. I do not know why the numbers of Pronghorn are reduced in those counties but I intend to find out. Once again the outfitters win and the public DIY hunter loses.

 

[Gila]

The Jan 10 Game commission meeting is on Youtube. The number of private land and public land doe tags has been reduced by 20%. But what they didn’t say was that Mature buck tags were also reduced by 20% for the public draw. Public draw MATURE BUCK tags in those affected counties are reduced by 20% across the board! They had no data to differentiate the population decline on public lands vs private land. The data showed about 75% of the tags in those affected NE counties are private land tags. They could have capped the over the counter female private land tags by about 75% and left the number of public draw mature buck tags alone to achieve the same objective! They attributed the main cause of the Northeast population decline to drought.