Poaching has long been a problem throughout the West, and authorities say only a small percentage of illegal hunters are caught...
Most hunters do everything by the book....
In Montana and New Mexico, the average area a game warden covers is about 2,000 square miles - about the size of Delaware. Almost always, they work alone, with the closest backup sometimes 60 miles away. (No wonder those backcountry poachers get away with so much)
And the ratio of hunters to officers is high. Last year in Idaho, there were 5,000 hunters to every officer. "It's kinda like being in the ninth inning forever," said one warden....
The extent of poaching is hard to quantify, but the consensus among game officers is that they catch a small percentage of poachers. An Idaho study found that for every legal animal killed in a particular hunting district, another was illegally taken. Officials suspect the same is true statewide.
Last year in Idaho, there were 11,955 elk and 36,455 deer killed legally.(WOW, that means there were 11,955 elk and 36,455 elk killed illegally)
"It's very frustrating not to be able to give people hard factual data," said Young. But poaching is a crime of secrecy. Poachers don't usually break the law in front of an officer, and a dead animal isn't going to file a report. Nor is the victim's family likely to show up at city hall demanding justice.
Then, too, poaching is a crime committed in desolate places, where people aren't likely to think anything if they hear a gunshot or see a man walking down a mountain road with a rifle slung over his shoulder.
For trophy poachers, though, wardens rely on traditional law-enforcement techniques - and, again, on tips.
Trophy poachers will do whatever it takes to get a mountable animal, Darrah said. They pay top dollar to guides who help them find animals to poach, they hunt with spotlights, they hunt out of season, they kill animals on winter ranges where they group together to survive.
