PERMFILE120146 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

1978 • COLORADO BIG GAME HARVEST INTRODUCTION The opportunity to harvest eight big game species in Colorado in 1978 was afforded by the establishment of hunting seasons on antelope (pronghorn), bighorn sheep, black bear, deer (both white-tailed and mule), elk (wapiti), mountain goat and mountain lion (cougar). Two other big game species are protected by Wildlife Commission regula- tions, e.g., the Shiras moose, which was transplanted to North Park from the Uinta Mountains of Utah in 1978 and another supplemental transplant from the Pinedale, Wyoming area in 1978, and the grizzly bear, which is classified as a Colorado endangered species. The bison, formerly a recent big game species, is now considered as a captive animal or as domestic livestock. A major change in deer and elk hunting seasons was implemented in 1977 with the objectives of distributing the hunting pressure more evenly through- out the fall seasons and obtaining a better harvest of surplus animals. The season structures are fully enumerated and analyzed in the deer and elk sections. Both objectives seem to have met with success in 1977 and in 1978. • Table 1 enumerates that 327 ,590 hunters spent over 1,422,000 recreation days taking 11?,995 big game ani mals in Colorado in 1978. In comparison to 1977 the harvest increa sed 3 3.3 per cent for deer, 10.0 per cent for elk, 12.1 per cent for antelope, 17.9 per cent for bighorn sheep, 41.5 per cent for moun- tain goat, and 7.1 per cent for mountain lion in 1978. The 1978 bear harvest decreased 1.4 per cent. The overall number of hunters increased 20.9 per cent due to 25.1 per cent in deer hunters, 17.0 per cent in elk hunters, 14.7 per cent in bear hunters, 24.6 per cent in lion hunters, 11.1 per cent in pronghorn hunters, 10.6 per cent in bighorn hunters, and 34.0 per cent in goat hunters. The increased license fees effective in 1976 undoubtedly decreased the sales of deer and elk licenses, particularly to nonresidents. Subsequently the non- residents returned in 1977 and 1978 accounting for most of the major increases in deer and elk license sales. An estimated $15,533,629 was yielded from the 359,213 big game licenses sold in 1978, compared to 307,435 licenses sold in 1977 for $11,973,694. This is an increase of 29.7 percent in income from big game licenses in 1978 com- • pared to 1977.