Texas legalizes shooting invasive sheep from a helicopter for sport

[bojangles808]

aoudad arent sheep

 

[Cynoscion]

Facts

 

[medvedyt]

it is a bovidae family member, subfamily caprinae so unfortunately it is classified in the same family as all the goats and sheeps ... among some others.

 

[Weldor]

With price's climbing, we'll see how much culling is done. It would be a different story if they were excellent table fair.

 

[yycyak]

Just to add some context:

- A stupid amount of aoudad test positive for M.Ovi. So once those critters mix with the native sheep (desert, bighorn), this is going to be a really, REALLY big problem. This fact will get the attention of the governments and conservation groups.

- Surveys show feral auodad pretty much everywhere in the southern US rockies, and migrating farther north every year

- WSF and sister orgs have recently changed tack on aoudad:

"The Foundation also acknowledges that our own promotion of aoudad hunting, while intended to relieve pressure on native wild sheep and other wildlife, has instead exacerbated the problem by promoting the sustainable use of aoudad. Consequently, the Wild Sheep Foundation believes that the threats that unchecked aoudad populations now represent necessitate swift action."

https://www.wildsheepfoundation.org/cache/DOC609_2025-6-15-v2-PostionStatementAoudad_Final.pdf?20250616031655

They had a proper blog article up on their site the other day, but link appears broken right now.

***

The cynic in me says this will be like feral pigs: a huge problem, but private land owners won't allow access for eradication to the extent needed. (And rightly so - property rights matter.) So it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.

The bottom sentence needs to be posted again and again.

The big issue is outfitters like HWO and "conservation" orgs like WSF and TBHS aren't about to upset the applecart as those worthless african animals are an absolute cash cow for them. Along with TPWD being too scared to do what needs to be done, they will never be controlled or ERADICATED in the way they should be.

 

[CMF]

With price's climbing, we'll see how much culling is done.

Yea, With the prices they get for hunts, a heli hunting experience is going to be expensive. I don't see many people paying to shoot a bunch of them out of a heli when you can get that experience shooting hogs.
I'm sure there are a few people that actually want to cull, but then again, I don't see why they don't offer free or cheap access, even if it's just to hunt ewes. I'd take my kids out to shoot ewes, mainly for the experience, but also the meat, but I'm not paying more than probably a hundred bucks a tag. We can get doe whitetail for meat.

It would be a different story if they were excellent table fair.

Made into ground meat, it's no different than deer, and who doesn't eat ground meat. I liked the backstrap, although it was certainly tougher than deer. I would wet age the next time.

 

[CMF]

The cynic in me says this will be like feral pigs: a huge problem, but private land owners won't allow access for eradication to the extent needed. (And rightly so - property rights matter.) So it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.

I don't see the desire to hunt them going anywhere and it's only growing as populations, opportunities, and media grows.

I don't see the helicopter law making much difference. The populations will be controlled by supply/demand of hunts and what ranches can make off of them.

- A stupid amount of aoudad test positive for M.Ovi. So once those critters mix with the native sheep (desert, bighorn), this is going to be a really, REALLY big problem. This fact will get the attention of the governments and conservation groups.

I think with the direction of technology, we'll probably have better luck genetically modifying disease resistance in Native sheep than we do controlling Aoudad on TX private lands or domestic stock across all sheep range.

 

[yfarm]

Every hunting lease I have been on in Texas and elsewhere required that I be vouched for by someone already on the lease and pass an onsite interview by the owner or lease manager. In one situation this required 14 hours of travel and an overnight stay and dinner with the owner before being accepted. Many owners and lease managers have had negative experiences with hunters and are gun shy. The concept of an unguided cheap day lease will go nowhere based on my experiences in this and other states. If you are offered such, the hunt you experience will reflect that so caveat emptor.

 

[CMF]

Many owners and lease managers have had negative experiences with hunters and are gun shy.

I can believe it. I'm sure with the technology we have these days, something could be put together to connect potential hunters and landowners. The hunters are vetted in some type of way. Once part of it, landowners could leave hunter reviews or recommend removal, hunters could rate properties, etc.

 

[alexnelon]

Many owners and lease managers have had negative experiences with hunters and are gun shy. The concept of an unguided cheap day lease will go nowhere based on my experiences in this and other states. If you are offered such, the hunt you experience will reflect that so caveat emptor.

Unless TPWD 1. Makes it illegal to sell Aoudad hunts for profit, and 2. Steps in and offers to foot the bill for and staff cull hunts, nothing will ever happen.

But TPWD would rather use our money to subsidize the helicopter fuel than try to provide any extra opportunity for hunters.

 

[cbeard64]

TPWD biologist in charge of desert bighorn sheep in Texas was interviewed on Meateater Live podcast. TX DBS populations are down from 1500-2000 five years ago to 700-800 and falling today. The primary culprit: disease spread and over competition by aoudad sheep. He said the goal should be eradication but that’s not realistic so they are hoping for marked reduction but that’s going to take cooperation by private landowners. (He also emphasized that hunting was not ever going to make a dent in the aoudad populations.)

I don’t see the cooperation to control populations ever happening because of their popularity. Which was illustrated because just before he went on the air the Meateater folks related their recent trip to hunt aoudads in Texas. The irony was hard to miss.

 

[elkhunter505]

Am I the only one who noticed a bunch of misinformation, opinion and hyperbole in that article. For the record, aoudad cannot breed with bighorns contrary to what that article says.

They cannot breed successfully but there are many first hand accounts of Aoudad being behaviorally dominant over bighorn rams during the rut. Even if they don’t technically breed, if they prevent the Bighorn rams from breeding, they’re inherently doing the same thing. Article could use some tuning though.

 

[cbeard64]

They cannot breed successfully but there are many first hand accounts of Aoudad being behaviorally dominant over bighorn rams during the rut. Even if they don’t technically breed, if they prevent the Bighorn rams from breeding, they’re inherently doing the same thing. Article could use some tuning though.

The biologist mentioned something about this behavior but was not entirely clear. I think what he was saying was that aoudad rams will gather harems of bighorn ewes and prevent the bighorn rams from breeding them.

 

[elkhunter505]

The biologist mentioned something about this behavior but was not entirely clear. I think what he was saying was that aoudad rams will gather harems of bighorn ewes and prevent the bighorn rams from breeding them.

Yep that is the case. They’ll try to breed them and defend them from Bighorn rams. Functionally the same as if they were hybridizing. I find them fun to hunt but they need to be gone. There’s a reason everyone in SE New Mexico is always saying “we used to have so many deer”. Even if they’re not directly competing for forage, seeing 100 Aoudad on a hillside makes you really think about the space element. Hell it could be an apparent competition issue but we don’t know because until recently we haven’t done research into that. Hopefully the Texas research starts showing they’re a major problem for deer along with sheep and we’ll be able to start eradicating them.

 

[RdRdrFan]

Unless TPWD 1. Makes it illegal to sell Aoudad hunts for profit.

Won’t happen and absolutely should not happen.

Are you really ok with a government agency dictating to private citizens what they can and cannot do with and on their property? I’m not.

 

[alexnelon]

Won’t happen and absolutely should not happen.

Are you really ok with a government agency dictating to private citizens what they can and cannot do with and on their property? I’m not.

I'm totally cool with Fish and Game agencies regulating fish and game, yes. That's the basis of the whole North American model for conservation.

 

[RdRdrFan]

I'm totally cool with Fish and Game agencies regulating fish and game, yes. That's the basis of the whole North American model for conservation.

That doesn’t apply in this instance. They are not game animals in the state of Texas.

Any attempt to do this or anything close to it would be met with immediate lawsuits that would (correctly) strike down TPWD’s overreach. That is one of many reasons why that idiotic plan would NEVER happen.

 

[OMB]

Won’t happen and absolutely should not happen.

Are you really ok with a government agency dictating to private citizens what they can and cannot do with and on their property? I’m not.

I am absolutely 100% on board with the government telling private landowners that they are not allowed to have non-native invasive species that displace native species on their land, and if they refuse to assist in the eradication of said non-native, the government will come in and do it themselves.

I hate government intrusion as much as anyone else, but we're not living in some lol-bertarian fantasy world, and culling every aoudad off the face of the North American continent is a pretty minor intrusion at that.

 

[elkhunter505]

That doesn’t apply in this instance. They are not game animals in the state of Texas.

Any attempt to do this or anything close to it would be met with immediate lawsuits that would (correctly) strike down TPWD’s overreach. That is one of many reasons why that idiotic plan would NEVER happen.

I do agree with this unfortunately. It’s going to take a massive ground-up public outreach campaign to have people understand why they need to shoot these things. As much as I would like to say it should be illegal to sell hunts, Texas doesn’t work that way. They could get it going in New Mexico by opening up the entire state to over the counter, but I’m certain the hunters wouldn’t stand for it even though it will have long term benefits for the mule deer and even the elk moving into the SE corner of the state.

 

[RdRdrFan]

I am absolutely 100% on board with the government telling private landowners that they are not allowed to have non-native invasive species that displace native species on their land, and if they refuse to assist in the eradication of said non-native, the government will come in and do it themselves.

I hate government intrusion as much as anyone else, but we're not living in some lol-bertarian fantasy world, and culling every aoudad off the face of the North American continent is a pretty minor intrusion at that.

Then you don’t hate government intrusion. If you think setting that precedent would stop at aoudad then you haven’t been paying attention to how the government operates.

I’d be just fine and happy if aoudad didn’t exist in the western world at all. But I’m not cool with ceding more rights to bureaucrats and politicians.