Bitterroot Goats

[BuzzH]

Montana big game hunting regulations : Montana. Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

volumes : 28 cm

archive.org

1987 was the last year of 75 tags.

1988 was 60.

 

[MTGomer]

I was wondering when drone surveys would become a thing. It seems like they would be more effective than visual surveys.

There may be other licenses or FAA exemptions, but I have a FAA part 107 license for my land survey business

It’s illegal to let the drone out of my visual line of sight. That really restricts range, if operated legally.

 

[Flynarrow]

Montana big game hunting regulations : Montana. Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

volumes : 28 cm

archive.org

1987 was the last year of 75 tags.

1988 was 60.

Thanks for the date correction Buzz. I remember going to Jim Ford sometime in the 80s to beg him to reduce the 75 tags or at least break them up into drainages.....he wouldn't budge. I had come from Idaho in 1976 and Idaho was managing their goats conservatively at the time based on Lonn Kuck's research in the Pasimaroi .

 

[Flynarrow]

Bitterroot was down to 12 tags by 1998.

Moose, sheep, goat, antelope : Montana big game hunting regulations : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

volumes : 27 cm

archive.org

My brother drew kootenai creek in 1989 and it was already broken into drainages then. I seem to want to say there was either 2 or 3 tags in that drainage the year he drew.

Edit: 3 tags and was 1989 when Matt drew kootenai. 1988 tags dropped to 60 but still all of 240.

I also remember in the Rattlesnake which had 5 permits each year as I recall but the success rate eventually went to zero.....they had killed them all. Later they did a transplant. Management?????

 

[BuzzH]

Thanks for the date correction Buzz. I remember going to Jim Ford sometime in the 80s to beg him to reduce the 75 tags or at least break them up into drainages.....he wouldn't budge. I had come from Idaho in 1976 and Idaho was managing their goats conservatively at the time based on Lonn Kuck's research in the Pasimaroi .

Yeah, it was 10 years too late for the Bitterroot before anything changed, unfortunately.

 

[BuzzH]

I also remember in the Rattlesnake which had 5 permits each year as I recall but the success rate eventually went to zero.....they had killed them all. Later they did a transplant. Management?????

I don't recall them putting more goats in the rattlesnake, but if they did that didn't work too well.

I saw 2 big billies about 20 years ago on Wisherd Ridge while glassing sheep off the highway. Those were likely rattlesnake goats, maybe from the transplant?

A late friend of mine killed a goat in the rattlesnake in the early 60's.

 

[rogerthat]

How does that sensor work? Does it rely on a computer to count the goats? What was the agl of the flight? Seems like they didn’t get the technology right on this attempt. In my opinion if the appropriate thermal isn’t picking those goats up, nothing is going to.

 

[Flynarrow]

I don't recall them putting more goats in the rattlesnake, but if they did that didn't work too well.

I saw 2 big billies about 20 years ago on Wisherd Ridge while glassing sheep off the highway. Those were likely rattlesnake goats, maybe from the transplant?

A late friend of mine killed a goat in the rattlesnake in the early 60's.

I was somewhat involved in the transplant of goats into the Rattlesnake....had to be before 1988.