Utah Antelope Numbers????

[Addicted]

LAST EDITED ON May-17-10 AT 10:44AM (MST)[p]
Why are there not alot more Antelope in Utah?
It seems to me that we have tons and tons of habitat that could support alot more animals. I could be wrong but couldn't almost the entire Western half of the state support alot more? It also looks like alot of both sides of I-70 all the way across the state could hold more goats too.
I just think that if we had alot more goats we could have alot more tags available, bucks and antlerless. The more tags we can give out the more opportunity it gives everyone to hunt and it could also help create alot more revenue for the DWR as well.

 

[cumminsboy97]

I have thought the same thing.

 

[buglinbilly]

I was born and raised in Evanston, Wyoming and when I was about 7 or 8 years old I went for hike up yellow creek and I saw an antelope watering at a waterhole. I went home and told my Dad, who was born there in 1900 and he told me I had to have seen a deer, as there were no antelope around Evanston. I knew the difference between an antelope and a deer, but he never did believe that I saw an antelope. That would have been around 1949-50 era.

I never saw another antelope around Evanston until into the 1960's, but the other day I drove up I-80 and I have never seen so many lopes near and west of the Ut.-Wy line as I did on that drive. I saw hundreds of them, and although I know they have migrated west, it's still the most I have ever seen and I have often wondered why it has taken them so long to inhabit that area.

I also wonder why the same isn't happening in other areas of Utah, as to the eye, it sure looks like Utah could be an antelope Mecca.

Have a good one. BB

 

[BradN]

LAST EDITED ON May-17-10 AT 10:43PM (MST)[p]As I travel to Flaming Gorge I'm seeing the same thing. Also, there are a lot of antelope between McKinnon and Manila, most around the Wyoming-Utah state line. I have been seeing a lot more antelope on the east side of Flaming Gorge.

However, during the 70s we would see maybe a hundred antelope between Mountain View and Lonetree, and now we see maybe a dozen.

 

[hossblur]

According to the DWR PR, the hard winter in the early 80's lead to a heavy kill off. Then just as numbers rebounded another heavy winter in the early 90's hammered them again. There has also been a lot of habitat loss to urban sprawl. However this year their numbers are excellent and we expect a 30%+ success rate.

Oh wait maybe that was for deer? No wait, that was for elk, wait I mean maybe moose?? Who knows, that seems to be the standard answer for all the big game in utah. Antelope management would mean just that. The problem is that antelope don't live in town, or on the wasatch front, and their isn't a lot of CWMU or "conservation group(see big money)" So DWR would have to get in one of those new crew cabs and head out to the desert, you know there are snakes out there? Who wants to deal with that? Besides, we have learned about the magic line between Colorado and Utah that stops Utah from having good deer while Colorado has them, is the same magic line that keeps antelope in Wyoming and away from Utah. Damn magic lines!!!! The simple fact is if we gave SFW 20 more elk tags on the manti or Nebo, antelope numbers would benefit(not sure how, but that is their answer to everything).