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Show Opening of Utah's Unique Buffalo Hunt Draws Widespread Interest By Barbara Ekker Saturday began the ten-day ten-day hunt for Utah's own buffalo herd. All lucky ones to draw out for permits must be Utah residents and this is a once in a lifetime hunt, and well worth it if you are among the lucky permit holders. In 1941 the Utah Department Depart-ment of Fish and Game re ceived 18 two-year old animals ani-mals from- Yellowstone National Na-tional Park. The first herd consisted of 3 bulls and 15 he'ifers. Five more bulls were added in the early part of 1942. The San Rafael Desert north of Hanksville near the famed Robber's Roost Ranch was the transplanted location . from their home in Wyoming but they soon moved south to the Henry" Mountain Range. Here they could winter win-ter on the Burr Desert and summer at heights up to 11,000 feet. The first hunt for these magnificent animals was conducted in 1950 With a limited' number of special permits being issued. Similar Simi-lar hunts followed through the years. Catch as Catch Can! In 1952 during one of the special hunts, blood- samples were taken from each animal killed which revealed carriers car-riers of the brucella organism organ-ism -within this' bison herd. When the herd was first' brought into the state they were tested for and inoculated inoculat-ed against brucellosis. This was a brucellosis-free herd so they must have been infected in-fected in Utah. The solution of this problem became the responsibility of the Utah Fish and Game Commission. In the spring of 1963, the calves from the previous year were captured and 'inoculated. 'in-oculated. But this didn't take care -of the adult carriers. Plans were made," remade, to set up some program that would eradicate this dreaded disease. First the department had to construct a capture cor- ral. A site was chosen because be-cause of its location at Granite because the wanted animals could be herded in from either end. Fences and winged gates would send the anmals right into the corral of 2xl2's. On the morning of November Novem-ber 20, 1963 all Fish and Game officials gathered in Hanksville. The airplane pilots began gathering the two herds that, had separated on the Burr Desert and pushed them together to-gether about three miles from the trap. Then men on horseback horse-back moved in and pushed the herd. The horses were laboring to keep up with these massive animals who seemed- to be moving quite easily. The herd hit the north wing, left of the corral gate and one went through. Quick work by a spotter helicopter heli-copter pilot pushed this leader lea-der back into the main herd. The pilot continued herding the lumbering animals against ag-ainst the south wing and right down the alley to 'he trap. Three straggling bulls watched wat-ched as the main herd entered en-tered the corral and rushed rush-ed to the far north end compartment. com-partment. It wasn't until the main gate slammed closed that they realized that they too had been caught. The trio went beserk. They ran from one end of the corral to the other and then, the larger lar-ger fellow hit the fence a;id Tried to jump over. The fence snapped like match sticks when the weight of his head and shoulders landed bur. fell back into the corral enclosure. en-closure. Finally they wer? allowed to join the milling herd in the north compartment compart-ment and settled down, More Equipment Needed The chute installed when the corral was constructed proved worthless to hold the animals, so a squeeze-chute, was installed. The calves were cut out, inoculated and turned loose. Then the remainder re-mainder of the animals were run through and tested, marked mar-ked and 'released. Out of the 69 animals,- only 11 proved to be carriers and were marked with bright floures-cent floures-cent streamers and released to be hunted the. following January. This became the hunt of hunts because the rare game animal began to know man as an enemy so didn't just stand and graze when a vehicle ve-hicle appeared in their area as before. Herd Scattered The first day the hunters got two and then the herd scattered to all areas of the Henry Mountains. Snow began be-gan falling ' and two more ' buffalo were spotted and killed. A second group of, hunters took over after the first group gave it up but they didn't even see the animals. ani-mals. Then additional hunters hunt-ers from both groups set out and three more buffalo wei:e killed. Then a halt was called because the department felt that the animals needed to settle down before calving time. Early in August of 1963 the herd began to 'Wander back to their old haunts at Nasty Flat on the north end of the Henry Mounains. Reports indicated in-dicated that the calf crop was normal with the only problems being to get them Inoculated. Ten Permits a Year Each year ten , permits . have been issued with the number being raised to 15 in 1968 and dropping back to 10 in 1969. If you happen to be one of those lucky enough to draw out, I'd suggest you take along as many strong backs as will go along. Remember Re-member that big buck you toted out on your shoulders last deer season? Just .multiply .mul-tiply that haul by 20 and you'll have a slight idea of what one of these fellows might weigh. To the novice, let me first tell you these animals are nothing like grandfather's milk cow. A full grown bull stands about six feet at the shoulders and is perhaps ten to twelve feet long. Eighteen hundred pounds is average although record trophies as high as twenty-four hundred pounds have been recorded. Bulls have a heavy neck and a massive, exceedingly broad head which is carried low-Horns low-Horns curve outward and upward from each side of the forehead. Forequarters stand much higher than the haunches. Spines rise from the vertebrae in the back giving way to a huge muscle which forms the hump. They have fourteen ribs one more than found in cattle. Shaggy hair covers foreheads fore-heads and nearly hides his eyes. From chin and throat hangs side whiskers and beard, especially prominent in bulls. In their nomadic search for food they always travel in single file. Much of the Union Pacific Railroad bed through the west was laid out on bison paths. Despite his apparent clumsiness clum-siness and weight he can swim with ease and climb in rugged mountains with surety. sur-ety. His keen nostrils pick up every scent, be it man or beast. Since Cortez commented on the bison in his diaries of 1521 until the. present day, the buffalo has definitely had a place in history. They furnished fur-nished meat for the pioneers, fuel when there was no wood, paths to waterholes, and blazed trails through the mountains; provided clothing cloth-ing for the winter. Despite this, the only thanks he's, received is an engraved likeness like-ness on an out-dated nickel. |