Global and International Hunting and Fishing News
Apr.28 - May.04 2008
- South Africa Lifts Ban on Elephant Hunting
- South Africa has lifted a 13-year ban on killing elephants, despite an outcry from conservationists and animal rights activists.
The government earlier this year authorized the move, which took effect Thursday, as a way of controlling the rising elephant population, which has more than doubled since 1995, to 18,000.
In related news, a conservation group says 14 elephants have been illegally killed during the last two weeks in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park.
Wildlife Direct says in a statement released Thursday that rebels, soldiers and local villagers killed the elephants.
The group blames the surge in poaching on the liberalization of the ivory trade being pushed by South Africa, and the increased presence of Chinese operators in the area who feed a demand for ivory in their home country.
The park was estimated to have an elephant population of 350 as of 2006.
- Hunting with dogs survey - Virginia
- Virginians interested in the state's hound-hunting study can take an online survey to offer thoughts and concerns or benefits to the issue of hunting with dogs.
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is reviewing its policy of allowing hunting with dogs that can be used to pursue animals such as deer, bears, rabbits and raccoons.
The process, to conclude with final recommendations to the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries in October, includes meeting with hunters, landowners, special-interest and focus groups.
The survey will be accepted through May 23 and results will be summarized and considered as public comment.
Survey>>
- Young gun gets hooked for life on hunting
- Olivia Miller, a 13-year-old from Sherburne, made her hunting debut during the Spring Youth Turkey Hunt. She and her uncle, Morris resident Dan Tracy, hunted along a farm meadow not far from the Klipnockie Beagle Club.
More>>
- State may allow hunting of moose and bears - Connecticut
- Moose and bears soon may come under the gun in Connecticut.
The state House voted Wednesday to authorize the hunting of moose and bear. The legislation now heads to the Senate.
The hunting bill became briefly tangled in a debate about an amendment concerning fishing lines and littering. Some question-and-answer straightened out House members.
Moose and bears cannot be legally hunted or trapped in Connecticut. The legislation authorizes the Department of Environmental Protection to open a hunting season.
The DEP estimates 100 or so moose and near 300 black bear wander the state. Both populations are on the rise.
Biologists say moose may multiply into the thousands within another decade. Bear numbers may be growing by 10 to 20 percent a year.
There have been bear sightings in dozens of towns and even some cities, including Wolcott and Torrington last year.
Moose still mostly roam the Northwest Corner, but some are ranging south.
A motorist hit a 500-pound moose on the Merritt Parkway in New Canaan last June. Conservation officers had to put the badly injured animal down. The driver also was hurt.
The House bill increases the punishments for illegally hunting moose and bear.
Under current law, hunters may be fined up to $200 and jailed for up to 60 days, or both.
The bill sets progressively stiffer penalties for a first, second and third conviction. Three-time offenders could be fined $1,000 and jailed for 180 days and permanently lose their hunting licenses.
- Proposed law seeks statewide Lyme disease policy - Connecticut
- With the warmer weather now here, many residents are increasingly finding themselves outdoors.
But that outdoor activity, coupled with the rising spring temperatures, also means an increased risk of coming into contact with the deer tick, the carrier of Lyme disease, as the tick awakens from its winter dormancy.
In an attempt to battle and reduce the high incidence of the debilitating disease in Connecticut, area legislators, local health departments, medical doctors, and town officials — including Weston First Selectman Woody Bliss — are putting their support behind a proposed bill currently moving its way through the General Assembly in Hartford to tackle the disease head on.
“I am absolutely a supporter of the bill,” Mr. Bliss said. The objective is to eradicate Lyme disease,” and this bill will go a long way toward that, he said.
If approved, the new law would require the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Health and the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station to work together to formulate a statewide plan aimed at lowering Lyme infection rates. The DEP would be the lead agency for the project.
The bill, “An Act Concerning the Control of Lyme Disease” (HB 5852), was unanimously approved by the General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee in April.
It has since been referred to the Office of Legislative Research and Office of Fiscal Analysis for additional research on the bill’s financial cost and legal impact before it is introduced to the General Assembly as a whole.
If the bill does not reach the floor of the state House and Senate for a vote before the current legislative session ends May 7, the bill’s supporters in Hartford will be forced to reintroduce the legislation all over again in the next session.
- Program allows visiting officers to carry weapon-Hawaii
- The Hawaii policy specifies that a permit allows use of specific types of weapons — 9 mm, .38 caliber, .40 caliber or .45 caliber firearms. It also specifies that even retired Hawaii law enforcement officers “must follow all Hawaii firearms laws that apply to civilians who are not law enforcement officers.”
More>>
- Farmers take toll on deer in bid to stop bovine TB - Michigan
- Hundreds of whitetail deer have been shot in recent weeks in Michigan's northeastern Lower Peninsula under a program aimed at preventing them from transmitting bovine tuberculosis to cattle.
The Department of Natural Resources mailed thousands of free, unsolicited deer kill tags this year to farmers in the state's TB zone.
More>>
- Bear hunt becomes family rescue
- An Alaska State Trooper helicopter lifted a family of five to safety Monday morning after they spent a chilly night near the face of Knik Glacier.
More>>
- Tourism crash threatens big cats
- Big cats living in Kenya's Maasai Mara game reserve are being threatened by a collapse in revenues from wildlife tourism, it has been claimed.
More>>
- As gold flirts with $1,000 an ounce, a new wave of Mother Lode panners-buoyed by a robst dose of gold fever - seeks riches in the residues
- The Sierra Nevada is littered with gold, the celebrity element that rocked financial institutions last month at a record $1,000 an ounce in futures trading.
And suddenly, gold panning has become a hot recreational activity again.
More>>
- Cliff-fall death leads to stolen firearms - California
- Climbing a steep, rocky cliff along the Sonoma Coast in the dark and carrying two rifles, Jeffrey Kessler struggled and fell to his death, a Sonoma County sheriff's sergeant said Monday.
More>>
- Turkey season off to good start - Ohio
- Ohio hunters killed a preliminary total of 2,768 bearded wild turkeys on the first day of the spring turkey-hunting season, which is open statewide through May 18. The preliminary figure was almost 8% above last year's opening day number of 2,569 turkeys, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife.
Four were killed in Wyandot County, compared to three last year. Twenty-five were killed in Seneca County in 2008, compared to 11 last year. Hancock county had only two killed, compared to three in 2008.
Top counties for wild turkeys killed were: Ashtabula - 134, Coshocton - 91, Guernsey - 87, Harrison - 83, Tuscarawas - 78, Geauga - 77, Jackson and Trumbull - 73, Meigs - 72, and Licking and Ross - 71.
This is the ninth year that spring turkey hunting has been open in all of Ohio's 88 counties. The state's first modern-day spring turkey hunt was held in 1966.
- DOC leaves bull thar for hunters - New Zealand
- Game managers killing thar for the Department of Conservation say they are leaving trophy bulls for Mid Canterbury’s recreational hunters.
Thar numbers are carefully controlled to preserve areas of high conservation values, but some hunters say too many are being culled.
DOC spends about $50,000 a year controlling thar in the Mid and South Canterbury area.
Game managers like Mark Beardsley and Neil Bolton spend their days counting thar from a helicopter and shooting to kill if density triggers are reached.
They say population numbers are carefully analysed using computer systems in the helicopter and female breeding thar targeted. They keep away from trophy bulls they know are prized by recreational hunters.
The pair asked Mid Canterbury hunters this week to help control numbers by shooting three nannies for every trophy bull they nailed.
Ashburton Deerstalkers Association chairman Mark Wright said hunters appreciated that controlling the thar population was necessary, but they had other concerns about the practices of some commercial safari guides.
These guides, with clients who paid big money, flew into alpine areas and ran bull thar to the point of exhaustion before landing the helicopter to make the kill. Other operators netted or tranquilised bull thar and removed them to private safari parks, where they were hunted by clients.
Mr Wright said hunters wanted DOC to look at creating no-fly zones. Foot hunters who spent a hard day tramping and climbing to an area were not happy to be overtaken by airborne hunters when they had animals in their scopes.
Mr Wright said the practices used by some helicopter hunters were hardly humane.
“They are chasing the bull until it can run no further. It is not sporting at all.”
Hunters would be happy to work with DOC policing no-fly zones and illegal practices, he said.
The Ashburton group was also happy to organise club shoots in areas that had been identified as having too many thar.
Himalayan thar were brought to New Zealand 100 years ago to provide a hunting resource. Their population boomed and by the 1960s they were seriously damaging subalpine shrublands and alpine grasslands; a major helicopter campaign in the 1970s reduced numbers, and a thar control plan introduced in 1993 is aimed at keeping the population under 10,000.
Mr Beardsley said the rangers balanced a fine line between recreational hunters wanting a thar resource to shoot, and others wanting density limits.
He said they aimed to keep Mt Cook national park free of thar and under control in other areas.
April 28 2008
More>>
- Deer sharpshooting program on hiatus - Pennsylvania
- The sharpshooting and trapping program will resume, after the two-month hiatus, in July.
More>>
- Turkey decoys can make all the difference
- Using decoys while hunting turkeys can often mean the difference between bagging a big tom or coming home empty-handed.
Remember that once you have let out a yelp or putt, the tom knows there is a hen in the area and will have pegged your general location.You want him to come and find you. It is best to keep him curious. Overcalling only serves to make him suspicious.
More>>
- Riverside Military Academy Announces Youth Summer Camps
- Riverside Military Academy will hold High Adventure Camp, an overnight camp for boys ages 12-15, June 16-20. High Adventure Camp provides the opportunity for boys to experience outdoor adventure and test their physical endurance. Campers will explore area rivers, hike and camp on the Appalachian Trail, and learn character and leadership skills along the way. The cost is $675.
More>>
- How Conservative is John McCAin
- With all the attention being paid to the death-struggle between Clinton and Obama on the left, not much attention is being paid to John McCain, but he is still the presumptive Republican nominee, and eventually voters on the right will have to stop gloating about the Democrat meltdown and start thinking seriously about how they feel about McCain.
More>>
