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Show Wildlife N ews ' Desert Bighorn Sheep rebounding to donate to the preservation preser-vation of Utah desert bighorn sheep in exchange ex-change for the opportunity op-portunity to hunt a trophy desert bighorn ram. A somewhat similar procedure has been successful in two neighboring neigh-boring states. Minimum bid has been ! set at $20,000. Some may say, "Are you trying to i price . hunting out of the common man's reach or I by bidding, are you going I to eliminate my chances of drawing a permit?" No! In the first place, the Division is able to keep the price of the regular bighorn sheep permit at its. present level by using this new pfocedure to pay for the total costs associated with reestablishing new bighorn populations. Secondly, the Division is not offering additional bighorn permits. Actually, Ac-tually, last year, there were two nonresident permits authorized on the regular hunt: this year, Utah desert bighorn , sheep, once so plentiful in , southeastern Utah that they were often the subject of ancient Indian petroglyphs, are again increasing in numbers. WiU. . careful1 management practices and utilization of transplants, desert! bighorn sheep population j are now at their highest known levels in areas j east of the Colorado J River, according to Norman Hancock, chief of Game Management for the Division of Wildlife Resources. However, the Division officials are not resting easy. A highly concentrated con-centrated herd of desert bighorn sheep is a prime target for disease and parasites. Recently, New Mexico lost. 80 percent of one of its bighorn sheep herds to a scabies mite infestation. Hancock says the Division plans to transplant tran-splant desert bighorn sheep into their historical habitat west of the Green and Colorado rivers where herd numbers are still very low. This operation will increase the chances for healthy populations of desert bighorn sheep to perpetuate per-petuate in all areas of southern and southeastern Utah. The Division feels a sense of immediacy in taking advantage of the current high populations of desert bighorn sheep. However, financial constraints have recently delayed the transplant operation. Contributions from Shikar-Safari International In-ternational and a grant from the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep have aided the causes, but funds still fall far short. Due to the remoteness of desert bighorn sheep habitat, helicopters are essential in a transplant project. To give a financial boost to the project, the Board of Big Game Control recently . approved ap-proved the bidding of one desert bighorn sheep permit. This proposal will allow the highest bidder there is but one. Bids must be submitted to the Division Salt Lake office by 5 p.m., Aug. 13. The bid proposal must be in letter form or a telegram and be marked "Sealed Bid-bighorn sheep." Bids will be opened at 4 p.m., on Aug. 15, and the desert bighorn sheep permit will be awarded to the highest bidder. - The recipient may hunt a desert bighorn sheep from opening day of the regular season Sept. 13 to the end of the license year Dec. 31. A professional private guide has tentatively ten-tatively offered to donate up to 10 days of his time free for guiding after the second week of the regular bighorn sheep hunt. All proceeds from the highest bidder's donation, except for license and permit fees, will be placed in the Research and Development Fund and be earmarked for capturing cap-turing and transplanting bighorn sheep into historical sites. |