Montana fish & wildlife statistics

[A-con]

I was playing around Montanas web site with the “hunt planner”. Lots of information. One thing they have is “population numbers’, an estimate based on post hunt surveys.

What do you think of these numbers, would you use them to plan a hunt ?

Some of these population numbers are surprising, areas legendary for elk with unit population under 500. Other units supposedly wiped out by wolves showing post 2007 populations in the thousands.

 

[MattK]

A-con- I asked a biologist from the fish and game a similar question. I was told it depended on when the #'s were tabulated and how they were tabulated. The numbers are definitely suspect but in the case of the species I was asking about and the unit I was talking to them about...the numbers were actual count from a helicopter done in June. The best resource, I feel, is speaking to the biologist for the area. They can give you the details that are missed or left out of the plan a hunt.

 

[the nikster]

A-CON

I can speak for only 1 unit in east central state.
The state site showed very few elk in an area famous for elk. We only saw 6 elk in 5 days, all mature branch antlered bulls.
The state site said very few whitetails. I found this to be accurate, only a few along rivers and creeks but plenty to hunt.
The state site showed many mulies. Totally accurate!! I saw more mulies than I have in Idaho the last 5 years combined.
So I have to give them kudos for accuracy.

 

[shoots-straight]

Most area surveys are conducted at spring greenup. Some area's that the elk migrate out of show little or no elk at all. Our local biologist counted our ek numbers then added 25% to the actual count. He told me he had a gut feeling that he was missing elk. In 2000 the fires burnt vast area's which included lots of winter range. He was trying to point out the fact that the elk are way over objectives numbers, I was try to convince him that the FWP surveys pre 2000 were missing lots of elk and in fact the elk numbers are down. They figure that before the fires they counted most the elk and didn't need to inflate the numbers. Go figure.

 

[Bambistew]

Like Matt said, call the local bio, or game warden.

I think some are close, but the majority are pretty suspect.