Registration open for Antelope Island Bison Roundup and Range Ride

Syracuse – Antelope Island State Park hosts the 24th Annual Bison Roundup and Range Ride Friday, October 29 and Saturday, October 30. Horsemen and women interested in participating in the range ride must register by Friday, October 22. All registration documents are available online at stateparks.utah.gov.

Range ride participants herd the Antelope Island bison to designated areas on Friday and Saturday. Please be aware that in past years, most bison have been moved to holding facilities on the first day of the range ride. Registration fees are $25 per person and include a souvenir bandana and entertainment. For more information, visit http://www.stateparks.utah.gov/ or call (801) 773-2941.

Fewer bison permits for the Henry Mountains among 2010 Big Game Proposals

The number of hunting permits for most of Utah’s big game animals could go up this fall.

One exception is cow bison permits for the Henry Mountains. But fewer permits to hunt cow bison on the Henry Mountains is actually good news—it means the bison herd on the unit can start building to a new management objective.

Learn more, share your ideas
You can review all of the Division of Wildlife Resources big game permit proposals at www.wildlife.utah.gov/public_meetings . Once you’ve read the proposals, you can share your thoughts and ideas one of two ways:

RAC meetings
Five Regional Advisory Council meetings will be held across Utah. Citizens representing the RACs will take the input received at the meetings to the Utah Wildlife Board. Board members will use the input to set the permit numbers. They’ll approve the final numbers at their March 31 meeting in Salt Lake City.

You can participate and provide your input at any of the following meetings (please note that the Northeastern RAC is meeting on a Monday):


E-mail
You can also provide your comments to your RAC via e-mail. E-mail addresses for your RAC members are available at www.wildlife.utah.gov/public_meetings .

The group each RAC member represents (sportsman, non-consumptive, etc.) is listed under each person’s e-mail address. You should direct your e-mail to the people on the RAC who represent your interest.

Permit recommendations
The following chart shows the number of permits that were available in 2009 and the number the DWR is recommending for 2010:
                                              2009        2010
General season buck deer        94,000     94,000
Premium limited entry deer      173          179
Limited entry deer                   1,021      1,034
Management buck deer            60            95
Limited entry bull elk                2,737       2,976
Pronghorn antelope                  992          1,035
Moose                                     147           139
Bison                                       170           39
Rocky Mountain goat               104           111
Desert bighorn sheep                37             45
Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep  24             31

Fewer bison permits
It’s time to start increasing the number of bison on the Henry Mountains in southeastern Utah.

To do that, the Division of Wildlife Resources is recommending fewer bison hunting permits for the unit this fall.

Two types of bison permits are offered for the Henry Mountains. Most of the permits allow hunters to take either a bull bison or a cow bison. Others allow hunters to take only a cow.

“A management plan for the Henry’s was approved in August 2007,” says Anis Aoude, big game coordinator for the DWR. “One of the objectives in the plan limits the number of adult bison on the unit to not more than 305 after the 2010 hunting season is over.”

The plan allows that number to increase to not more than 315 adults after the 2011 season is over and not more than 325 after the 2012 season.

Using information from aerial surveys, harvest data from the 2009 hunt and range studies of habitat on the Henry Mountains, biologists feel it’s safe to start increasing the number of bison on the unit to the 305 adult objective.

And right now should be a good time to do that. Aoude says the DWR and its partners have spent more than $1 million on habitat work on the Henry’s over the past three years alone. More than 8,000 acres of habitat has been improved. And multiple water sources have been developed across the unit.

DWR Captures 40 Bison near Lake Powell

Bullfrog -- Forty bison will soon have a new home in northeastern Utah.

The Division of Wildlife Resources captured the bison on Jan. 15 and Jan. 16 on the Henry Mountains in southeastern Utah.

Many Utahns don’t realize that a free-ranging herd of bison occupies 240 square miles of open country on the northwest side of Lake Powell.

Bison in the Henry Mountains
The Henry Mountains herd began in 1941, when the Utah Department of Fish and Game trucked three bulls and 15 cows from Yellowstone National Park to the Henry Mountains. That small herd of 18 animals has grown to more than 300 bison today. The herd continues to provide Utah’s sportsmen with a unique hunting opportunity.

The bison that were captured on the Henry Mountains on Jan. 15 and 16 will join about 50 bison that already occupy the Book Cliffs in east-central Utah. This herd was established in 2008 and 2009 with 14 animals donated from the Ute Tribe and an additional 30 bison coming from the Henry Mountains. Calves have been born since then, which has added even more animals to the herd.

The 40 bison, which will be released in the Book Cliffs on Jan. 20, will bolster Utah’s newest bison herd.

An aerial rodeo!
Capturing and moving a buffalo is extremely risky. To try and minimize the danger, the DWR decided to capture only calves, cows and yearling bulls. These animals weigh between 300 and 800 pounds.

Leading Edge Aviation, a company that specializes in capturing wildlife, was contracted to accomplish the aerial rodeo work!


Capturing the bison
The DWR developed a capture plan that involved the use of two aircraft—a fixed wing aircraft with DWR spotters in it, and a helicopter capture craft operated by Leading Edge Aviation. The spotters kept track of the bison herd from the air, while the capture craft concentrated entirely on the rodeo show.

Once the spotters spotted the bison, they let the capture crew know where the animals were. The helicopter then closed in and singled out one bison. That animal was cut out from the herd, and a net from a specially designed rifle was fired over it.

Once the net landed on the animal, the net entangled the bison and it dropped to the ground. At that point, crewmen called “muggers” jumped from the chopper and blindfolded and hobbled the immobilized animal.

The muggers then rolled the animal into a carry bag. Within seconds of rolling the bison into the bag, the chopper dropped a cable to the muggers, and they attached the cable to the bag. The helicopter then slung the bison through the air to a crew waiting on the ground.

The ground crew consisted of DWR personnel. The crew was positioned about 10 air miles from the capture location, on one of only a few roads that access the southeast portion of the Henry Mountains. (Known as the Burr Trail, this secondary road connects Bullfrog with Escalante.)

The ground crew’s job was to transfer the slung bison into a waiting horse trailer. Before placing the bison in the trailer, the crew performed health checks and drew blood samples for laboratory testing.

After the horse trailer was fully loaded with bison, the captured animals were driven to Antelope Island State Park. They’ll stay in quarantine at the park until blood tests certify that they are free of disease.

After an “all clear!” from the state veterinarian, the bison will finish their trip to the Book Cliffs on Jan. 20.