Interesting2018 Harvest Survey

[saskbooknut]

When you sample a population (hunters, in this case), you want the sample to be representative of the whole. One of the assumptions in such sampling is randomness in selection.

Hunter compliance in questionnaires is poor. One could send all questionnaires to all hunters. The return is unlikely to be better than 20%, and even with significant incentives like prizes, it is hard to get above 30%. I suspect that BC publishes hunter questionnaire stats. The amount of work generated by compulsory response is prohibitive.

With severely restricted budgets game managers have too few tools at their disposal.

[Bugle M In]

When you sample a population (hunters, in this case), you want the sample to be representative of the whole. One of the assumptions in such sampling is randomness in selection.

Hunter compliance in questionnaires is poor. One could send all questionnaires to all hunters. The return is unlikely to be better than 20%, and even with significant incentives like prizes, it is hard to get above 30%. I suspect that BC publishes hunter questionnaire stats. The amount of work generated by compulsory response is prohibitive.

With severely restricted budgets game managers have too few tools at their disposal.

There would be a simple fix for people not sending in surveys.
They would "not be eligible" to buy next years species tags.
If this harvest survey somehow "does make a difference" and is so important, then so it should be that all hunters comply.
Just my opinion.

[Bugle M In]

Conversation we had with a bio a number of years ago:

You should increase the bag limit and season for wolves, there are lots of them! Lots are getting shot the past couple of years!

"We have asked that wolf kills get reported so we can get a better handle on the numbers to better manage the seasons, but everyone is suspicious that if they tell us they are killing wolves we will close the season, so they don't report it. So as far as our data shows, nobody is killing wolves, so there isn't a surplus of wolves, so no incentive to expand seasons or bag limits."

That's off of memory but it was basically the conversation.

Hunters conjure up all sorts of reasons to not share accurate harvest information. I think most of them don't understand how the data is interpreted.

I appreciate what you are saying here, but I disagree.
Even if hunters "do go hunt wolves specifically", it is my understanding that their success rate is even lower then if they had gone out and hunted some other species etc.
I see tracks quite often, fresh ones, year after year, where I hunt elk and now MD, and only once in all those years, while
elk hunting which I have done a long time now and spend lots of consecutive days at), have I seen a "pack of wolves".
And the others with me, who have spent the same time at it and even longer in years, only once did they see a wolf.
It's not easy!

My opinion still holds:
That the Ministry surely must not be "deaf" (definitely dumb however!), to not know by now that many hunters complain
about wolves being one of the big issues in the lower/lack of game.
And putting that together with the fact of (simple) math of these harvest surveys to show that hunters are in fact
"not killing many wolves", should tell them the wolf problem is not getting rectified anytime soon, and not by hunters.

Believe me, I wish it was as simple as hunters just whacking wolves every time they go out.
If that was the case, the problem would be long over.

[Gateholio]

You disagree with what exactly ? I don’t recall you being in the room when the conversation took place so ?

[HarryToolips]

There would be a simple fix for people not sending in surveys.
They would "not be eligible" to buy next years species tags.
If this harvest survey somehow "does make a difference" and is so important, then so it should be that all hunters comply.
Just my opinion.

I agree, it should be mandatory, and we should be declaring all our hunter days for each species and kills...and obviously, FN's should be doing the same but we all know they won't do that..

[gcreek]

The bag limit on wolves is a joke.
The best guys I know are able to shoot less than 10 a year.
Good trappers I know, get less than 20.

The super-hardcore, foxpro, full-camo, face-paint, varmint-rifle, TimPortance on the way there guys; never get more than 3 a year. Wolves aren't easy to fool.

And yet nobody can go down a road that isn't packed down with fresh wolf tracks, and no ungulate tracks.


But boiling down to the point of your post.. If we all said we shot 50 a year, you think they would do more to reduce the wolf numbers?
I'm thinking they'd throttle back the NBL 365d/y

Shooting a wolf isn't as easy as shooting an ungulate in the rut, which is what most BC hunters concentrate on.

You get the full picture. Those behind the grizzly hunting ban are still lurking in the shadows.

[KC2]

The bag limit on wolves is a joke.
The best guys I know are able to shoot less than 10 a year.
Good trappers I know, get less than 20.

The super-hardcore, foxpro, full-camo, face-paint, varmint-rifle, TimPortance on the way there guys; never get more than 3 a year. Wolves aren't easy to fool.

And yet nobody can go down a road that isn't packed down with fresh wolf tracks, and no ungulate tracks.


But boiling down to the point of your post.. If we all said we shot 50 a year, you think they would do more to reduce the wolf numbers?
I'm thinking they'd throttle back the NBL 365d/y

Shooting a wolf isn't as easy as shooting an ungulate in the rut, which is what most BC hunters concentrate on.

Bang on!
Moved to Alberta 20 years ago.
Wolf season is November 1st till May 31st.
NBL
Don't need a tag,only hunting license.
Never been able to get one.
(My son got his first elk at age 15)
Yes it is easier to get a deer or elk than a wolf.

[Gateholio]

But boiling down to the point of your post.. If we all said we shot 50 a year, you think they would do more to reduce the wolf numbers?
I'm thinking they'd throttle back the NBL 365d/y

Shooting a wolf isn't as easy as shooting an ungulate in the rut, which is what most BC hunters concentrate on.

I think if you reported shooting 50 wolves per year they would throw it out as inaccurate data

[Bugle M In]

You disagree with what exactly ? I don’t recall you being in the room when the conversation took place so ?

Wasn't disagreeing with "what they said to you".
I just don't agree with that thought of theirs is all.

[Gateholio]

I think there is often confusion about how to report on the questionnaires, despite that they are fairly simple forms. And I think the confusion is often about "incidental catch" animals. After all, if you only buy a moose tag, go moose hunting and shoot only a moose, it's easy to fill out that report. You drove a day to your spot, spent 3 days hunting, shot a moose and went home. So 3 days hunting, and one moose. Easy.

But what if you are going moose hunting and you know there are WTD and MD in the area, so you buy a tag. And sometimes black bears can be problematic and you wouldn't mind a bear skin rug and some bear burger, so let's get a BB tag too.

Off you go on your moose hunt and you are out looking for moose from sunrise to sunset for 2 days but see nothing. On day 3 you see a nice WTD so you shoot it. On the way back to camp you run into some grouse and you kill 3 for lunch. On day 4 you are still looking for moose but run into a wolf and shoot it. Day 5 you still haven't seen a moose but there is a 4pt MD so he gets added to the meat pole. Day 6 you go out in a last ditch effort to call in a moose but no luck and it's your last day in camp, you head home the next day.

Then you get the questionnaire and it lists everything you had a tag for plus wolf and grouse. How do you tally it all up? Here's how I would do it, as it makes the most sense to me. YMMV

Moose= Hunt 6 days Kill 0
WTD- Hunt 1 day Kill 1
MD Hunt 1 day Kill 1
BB Hunt 0 days Kill 0
Grouse Hunt 1 day Kill 3
Wolf Hunt 1 day Kill 1

Now some may say that because I had all those tags in my pocket, a .410 in the truck to shoot grouse, plus I had decided prior to the hunt I would be happy to take a wolf that I hunted 6 days for all species. But really, I was hunting moose and took a detour to hunt other animals.

If I was out calling wolves for 4 days and shot 3 grouse one afternoon, plus 2 wolves it woudl look like this

Wolf- Hunt 4 days Kill 2
Grouse Hunt 1 day Kill 3

To me, this method makes the most sense.