kgriz
08-23-2008, 10:02 PM
After reading the statements of some lately about aging sheep I thought I would tell this story...
A friend of mine took a sheep in for CI when it was still done by gov't biologists and there was a disagreement on it being over 8. Skip ahead through all of the beaurocratic BS and my friend got in contact with Dr. V. Geist, probably one of the if not top authorities on Wild Sheep in the world. My buddy sent him huge crystal-clear blow-ups of the horns clearly showing the annuli and Dr. Geist wrote back that as far as he could tell the ram was 11 1/2. Well my buddy thought this was great and presented these findings to the local MOE in question. They then took this under consideration and sent the actual horns to Dr. G and obviously talked to him at length which would have been easy as it turns out as he either had worked directly for the Gov't or contracted to them in the past. Well, he changed his mind and then concluded that the ram was 6 1/2. There seems to be some scandalous elements to this story but that is not the point......The point is that one of the worlds' foremost experts on Wild Sheep who has seen and studied 10 times more rams than any seasoned hunter or guide of 30+ years blah blah blah could not properly age a ram from huge clear photos let alone through a spotting scope on a windy mountain.......so you think you can? Hah
Plus it doesn't matter if you could, the law states:
"8 years as evidenced by yearly horn growth
annuli as determined by the Regional Manager
or designate."
and then the synopsis further adds:
"Do not use yearly horn growth
annuli to determine the age of a ram in the
field, because "false" annuli may be present."
This means that the legal age is based upon this persons' professional opinion based on horn annuli, not necessarily the true age.
My friends sheep got confiscated and as a side note, the same people that he was arguing with stated that in "this and that" area sheep do not get over the nose by 6 1/2 years old......
The beautiful irony is that 2 years later he brought in a sheep from that area 2 inches over the nose.....they aged him at 6 1/2 years old...
Hah
I think that that age clause should be removed from the regs and they should be over the nose ( for thinhorns ) only. The only reason I can see that its there is to cater to the guides who have a working relationship with the CI'ers and the Gov't and don't get bamboozled like my buddy because of it. If a sheep can get old and broken off like its often stated of why the age thing is there, good for them...let them lie on the mountain.
A friend of mine took a sheep in for CI when it was still done by gov't biologists and there was a disagreement on it being over 8. Skip ahead through all of the beaurocratic BS and my friend got in contact with Dr. V. Geist, probably one of the if not top authorities on Wild Sheep in the world. My buddy sent him huge crystal-clear blow-ups of the horns clearly showing the annuli and Dr. Geist wrote back that as far as he could tell the ram was 11 1/2. Well my buddy thought this was great and presented these findings to the local MOE in question. They then took this under consideration and sent the actual horns to Dr. G and obviously talked to him at length which would have been easy as it turns out as he either had worked directly for the Gov't or contracted to them in the past. Well, he changed his mind and then concluded that the ram was 6 1/2. There seems to be some scandalous elements to this story but that is not the point......The point is that one of the worlds' foremost experts on Wild Sheep who has seen and studied 10 times more rams than any seasoned hunter or guide of 30+ years blah blah blah could not properly age a ram from huge clear photos let alone through a spotting scope on a windy mountain.......so you think you can? Hah
Plus it doesn't matter if you could, the law states:
"8 years as evidenced by yearly horn growth
annuli as determined by the Regional Manager
or designate."
and then the synopsis further adds:
"Do not use yearly horn growth
annuli to determine the age of a ram in the
field, because "false" annuli may be present."
This means that the legal age is based upon this persons' professional opinion based on horn annuli, not necessarily the true age.
My friends sheep got confiscated and as a side note, the same people that he was arguing with stated that in "this and that" area sheep do not get over the nose by 6 1/2 years old......
The beautiful irony is that 2 years later he brought in a sheep from that area 2 inches over the nose.....they aged him at 6 1/2 years old...
Hah
I think that that age clause should be removed from the regs and they should be over the nose ( for thinhorns ) only. The only reason I can see that its there is to cater to the guides who have a working relationship with the CI'ers and the Gov't and don't get bamboozled like my buddy because of it. If a sheep can get old and broken off like its often stated of why the age thing is there, good for them...let them lie on the mountain.