BCWF
10-01-2015, 04:32 PM
http://www.cheknews.ca/nanaimo-deer-tracking-project-116837/
Attaching tracking collars on animals isn’t new, but now BC Conservation Officers in Nanaimo are hoping smaller, hidden devices might help them catch poachers red-handed.
“Urban hunting in Nanaimo has been an issue. We’ve actually caught people doing it and achieved some significant fines, hunting suspensions and even forfeiture of vehicles. It’s still an ongoing issue and it’s a serious public safety risk as far as we’re concerned so we decided to some up with some unique steps as it were to try to combat it,” Conservation Officer Stuart Bates told CHEK News.
Officers from Nanaimo and Port Alberni, along with two provincial wildlife veterinarians and biologists, have now tranquilized several deer in the Nanaimo area but will not say exactly how many.
“Some of the deer we’re capturing will be collared, some of them will have implantable tags and there’s other varieties of electronic devices that I’m not going to go into great detail about that we will be hooking some deer up with,” added Bates.
The hidden tracking devices are likely to be the most successful.
“If a deer is shot illegally in Nanaimo, there is a good possibility we’ll see it doing 80km/hr down the highway on the computer. So therefore if the deer gets harvested and the hunter tries to tell me he shot it 40km from here, he’s going to have a hard time explaining that to the court,” said Bates.
Attaching tracking collars on animals isn’t new, but now BC Conservation Officers in Nanaimo are hoping smaller, hidden devices might help them catch poachers red-handed.
“Urban hunting in Nanaimo has been an issue. We’ve actually caught people doing it and achieved some significant fines, hunting suspensions and even forfeiture of vehicles. It’s still an ongoing issue and it’s a serious public safety risk as far as we’re concerned so we decided to some up with some unique steps as it were to try to combat it,” Conservation Officer Stuart Bates told CHEK News.
Officers from Nanaimo and Port Alberni, along with two provincial wildlife veterinarians and biologists, have now tranquilized several deer in the Nanaimo area but will not say exactly how many.
“Some of the deer we’re capturing will be collared, some of them will have implantable tags and there’s other varieties of electronic devices that I’m not going to go into great detail about that we will be hooking some deer up with,” added Bates.
The hidden tracking devices are likely to be the most successful.
“If a deer is shot illegally in Nanaimo, there is a good possibility we’ll see it doing 80km/hr down the highway on the computer. So therefore if the deer gets harvested and the hunter tries to tell me he shot it 40km from here, he’s going to have a hard time explaining that to the court,” said Bates.