Top Five Reasons to Go Cow Elk Hunting

[noharleyyet]

....from the RMEF

October 2, 2009.



Your crosshairs shift undecidedly between a raghorn bull and a big cow, both standing broadside at 60 yards. The elk tag in your pocket makes both animals legal. Which one do you shoot?

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation offers 5 reasons to consider taking the cow:

1. Reducing a herd to fit the carrying capacity of its winter range is a form of habitat conservation. Culling a calf-producer is more effective population control. Wildlife agencies issue either-sex tags specifically to encourage hunter harvest of cows.

2. Letting young bulls walk improves your odds for a big, mature bull next year.

3. A more abundant bull population tends to be older which can improve efficiency of the rut. Result: more bulls surviving winter, higher pregnancy rates in cows, fewer late calves and better overall herd health.

4. A less abundant cow population tends to be younger, more vigorous and resistant to diseases.

5. As tablefare, cows and calves are generally better.

Hunting remains the primary wildlife management tool today, vital for balancing elk populations within biological and cultural tolerances, says David Allen, Elk Foundation president and CEO.

“Habitat conservation, sound management, good hunting, healthy wildlife—they’re all tied together. And, more and more, adequate harvest of cow elk is becoming a factor. If you have an either-sex elk tag this fall, consider letting young bulls go and filling your freezer with a fat cow,” he said.

RMEF this summer passed the 5.6 million acre mark in habitat conserved or enhanced

 

[Calif. Hunter]

Aren't 1 and 3 contradictory?

I agree with most of these, though.

 

[shoots-straight]

This scenario only works in areas of high elk populations. Most areas in the state of Montana are on the decline. Predators and mismanagement by our FW&P's dept have gotten us here. In Western Montana, and around the Park especially the herds have been hit hard. Region 3 will follow suit as some areas there are offering a A-9 B-12 tag.( extra cow). So you can kill your rag horn and then kill the cow too. Sounds dumb but it's reality. Our Legislature caused this through mandates that go back to the Judy Martz administration. When the elk herds in Region 3 get knocked back to the levels the legislature wants, then, and only then will you finally hear the cry that should have already taken place.

Our calf/cow ratio's are below 20 and some as low as 11 in many areas. You need a ratio of 30 to 35 per 100 cows just to maintain levels where they are. The free fall will last for a few more years in the Bitterroot, but we stopped the cow harvests. In a few years the forest during hunting season will be quite.

 

[Oak]

I don't really see 1 and 3 as being contradictory. How so?

I wish CO would issue more either sex tags. Might take some pressure off of our raghorns.

 

[Calif. Hunter]

Oak - you are taking cows to eliminate or reduce calf production and herd population via #1. #3 acts to increase calf production and survival - later births and more pregnancies. One says it is population reduction and one is population increasing.

As I said, I agree with taking cows, and does for that matter.

 

[DRAFTSTUD]

What Oak said about the Either Sex thang!! Jojn

 

[Oak]

I guess I can see your point. But by shooting cows to reduce the herd to winter range capacity (#1), you are in turn also achieving #3. The way #1 is written is contradictory, but the theory behind it is not.

 

[BuzzH]

Number one only works if there is science used in deciding what the "carrying capacity" is for winter range.

I'd like someone in Montana or Wyoming to show me a single browse line on winter range to justify reducing elk numbers...cause I havent seen one lately.

 

[shoots-straight]

Buzz, I've lived in the Bitterroot Valley all my life. I have never, I mean never witnessed a winter killed elk here. Some desease, but mostly predation.

 

[BuzzH]

Shoots-straight,

I agree.

You'd think an outfit like the RMEF would have people employed that understood the need/justification for killing cows was not really about helping winter-range.

I guess the truth of wildlife management is just too much for them to accept.

I have no problem with shooting cows and having cow hunts but to justify it with BS about helping bull to cow ratios, winter range, keeping herds younger etc...pretty much all crap.

Its about hunting opportunity, selling licenses, keeping outfitters happy, keeping welfare ranchers happy, justifying a crap elk management plan (in MT at least), etc. etc. etc.

All political postering...and hunters are only too eager to buy it if they can get their elk.

I'm guilty of buying the BS and taking advantage of the situation as I usually kill an elk or three each year.

Difference is though, I know I'm a hypocrit, know the truth, and would be willing to sacrifice my own opportunity to help the herds.

 

[Oak]

Its about hunting opportunity, selling licenses, keeping outfitters happy, keeping welfare ranchers happy, justifying a crap elk management plan (in MT at least), etc. etc. etc.

No biological reasons for harvesting cows? Interesting.

 

[1_pointer]

I don't care "why" I should be doing, just that come the end of the month, I'll be doing it as other tags have been hard to come by...

 

[BuzzH]

Oak,

Ask the RMEF for the biological reason to run a late cow hunt on a herd of 250 elk in Grant Creek within sight of their headquarters in Missoula Montana...ask them how many elk the winter range there can support.

I say the self proclaimed leaders in elk conservation should be honest and admit that 90% of the cow hunts are for reasons other than biological...

 

[shoots-straight]

The word is opportunist. Most predators, (man included) are opportunists. So given the chance at a cow, the masses of hunters come out of the woodwork for the OPPORTUNITY! Then because of the masses out more bulls are indirectly killed as a result. I'm talking either sex seasons here. It would be a better solution if your at range capacity to have a cow only hunt. This did work successfully here before our last bio, whom we'll call "killer" showed up in 2000. Thank god he left. We had the tar hot, and bags of feathers for his caressing.

 

[Bambistew]

Are you guys saying the RMEF doesn't know everything there is to know about elk?

These 'reasons' seem very similar to QDM or should I say QEM?

 

[shoots-straight]

Is what I'm saying is, there are no absolutes in management. Bio's and there higher ups must take more things into consideration than what their taught in school. A good source for info is and will continue to be those hunters that are on the ground with first hand observations. The RMEF, is geared up to raise money, then do feel good stuff. I think they do a lot of good. Promoting things they aren't experts in should be held to a minimum.

 

[1_pointer]

Those 'reasons' probably apply more to large, intesively managed private properties rather than the public lands most of us hunt elk.

 

[Sytes]

Increase / decrease - population... ok. Whatever floats whomever's boat

For the fun of it... My personal TOP 5 reasons for shooting a cow over a rag, or spike for that matter.

5. The meat - Mmmm!
4. The meat!
3. The MEAT!
2. Damn good meat!
and - <Drum Roll!!!....>

1. Wife likes cow elk meat over a bull any day - Happy wife = Happy life

 

[Moosie]

I think MtMiller usually has an Either sex tag in his pocket...............

 

[Bio Bo]

Being a biologist, albeit not specifically a game biologist, and having lived for a time in Missoula and the NW, I find this conversation very interesting. I also remember some of the same sentiments coming from the Bitteroot back in 1987 when I moved from there to OR. I'm not saying those sentiments don't have validity, but I find it very interesting that they persist after all this time.
And not having any recent 1st hand info about the Bitteroot elk herd, I can't argue the point. But I do believe that it is very difficult for anyone, hunter or biologist, to get a very accurate perception of habitat carrying capacity w/o practically living w/ the animals for several years. And, I agree, you can only get so much from a book, but a good book or study on the subject can be a very good guide.
Education only begins w/ a degree in anything. Experience is the real teacher, and unfortunately, w/ experience the test comes 1st... the learning comes later...
And that's why it's good that we have these discussions. But it's depressing that the same cynicism and evident practices persist after so many years...