State of the Central Arctic Herd

[bigbassfish]

Considering planning my first trip to Alaska for a caribou hunt. What is the health of the herd like these days? I've heard it has slowly been recovering and it would be great to make it out there for 2025, but that would likely mean not going to Montana in the spring for bear.

What are the chances things, regulatory or otherwise, make this hunt more difficult in the coming years if i were to plan on 2026 instead?

 

[fatbacks]

I would just call Alaska Department of Fish and game in Fairbanks and ask to speak with a Caribou biologist

According to the last thing I can find online the area biologist for the central Arctic heard is Beth Lenart
[email protected], (907) 459-7206

You will probably get more solid information than here on the forums


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bigbassfish]

Thanks! I wasn’t even thinking about that, too busy trying to figure out how to squeeze in enough vacation to make both trips in 2025 lol

 

[bigbassfish]

Is there a timeline for purchasing non res tags for unit 26? From what I can tell, it sounds like they can be purchased at any time before the hunt.

 

[Larry Bartlett]

The Central Arctic Herd rebounded from its lowest point starting about three seasons ago. Bag limits readjusted in 2024 for everyone and the herd in general is doing better and is still growing annually.

GMU 26 has slightly trickier harvest tag availability. It's a registration hunt for the Western Arctic Herd bou in 23/26A. Unit 26B and east/south is over the counter still. If you buy online, make sure you get the metal locking tag which sometimes does not get mailed for whatever reason.