Benbrown

Short answer is that nobody knows for sure exactly how it originated and we may never know. The fact that it first appeared in deer pens at CSU in Fort Collins, which were built on ground that had been experimental sheep pens for dozens of years, suggests that the prions that cause scrapie may have somehow transformed and became infectious to deer. However, as the article said, new research shows that the prions of Cervids (deer, elk, moose and their close relatives) are very susceptible to the spontaneous deformation that could make them infectious. It has been suggested that the disease may have existed in nature for a long time at a very low infection rate and was only diagnosed when it began appearing in penned deer in an experimental facility where the the animals were observed almost every day for a long period of time. The fact that the prions are apparently virtually indestructible and remain infectious in the soil for a long time may be the reason for the seeming pyramiding rate of infection in wild cervids. With respect to the outback in Norway, spontaneous deformation seems to be a most unlikely explanation right now. Whitetail deer have been introduced in and are hunted in several Scandinavian countries in northern Europe. Those deer were probably taken from commercial deer breeding operations or hunting preserves here in the states, both of which have become hotbeds of CWD infection.

Good spot! They don't move around much in the summer, usually hole up in crevices or under rocks to stay cool.

With a wife and two young daughters, I quit a good job as a research chemist and went to grad school, working for a lot less pay for the next six years. But I earned an M.S. and Ph.D in the profession that I really wanted to be in. It has been a good life ever since, going places and doing things that many people only dream about. I have never regretted it.

There are 60 "fork antlered deer" tags (either whitetail or mule deer) available in 26 for the muzzle loader hunt. There are Coues whitetails in the south end of the unit, but access is tricky.

There is even more "conventional wisdom" that is not based on fact, and equally as much or more that is simply based on fairy tales. The OP asked for information and got mostly opinions. Your opinion and $4.50 will get you a nice latte at Starbucks or a six-pack of Lite on sale.

The Diamond A Ranch down the road had a full-time wolf trapper for years, and Monroe Dunagan, who lived about 12 miles south of Animas was also a very active wolf trapper. Dave Dunagan had photos of his dad with lots of wolves and wolf pelts. If you read J. Frank Dobie's biography of Ben Lilly, you will see that he killed a LOT of wolves up in the Gila, pretty much right where they are being reintroduced in New Mexico. Many of the wolves being reintroduced are descended from wolves captured in Mexico because they had already been extirpated from the U.S. by the time the Fish and Wildlife Service began their restoration program, but there were already quite a few in the U.S. in zoos that had been bred in captivity.

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/outdoors/2012/aug/01/wolf-experts-confronts-myth-about-native-vs-re-introduced-wolves/ http://howlcolorado.org/2010/04/22/detangling-the-subspecies-controversy/

Ya or one of those big funnels you toss the money into Last time I was through there (last summer), all of the toll booths were either shut down or gone completely. As AZPlumber said, you can go online and create an account and the rates are discounted.

Wife just got a bill for $19, but it's worth it to avoid I-25 in Denver. If I was in the pickup with a double axle trailer, I'd have to think about it...

Congratulations! He's a keeper!

We have friends that live just off of it at Carmel. They say that because a lot of lesser roads have suffered storm damage this winter, the highway is clogged with traffic. It takes them at least an hour and a half to make a trip to the nearest grocery store. They just flew in here today, so I will try to get an update for you in a day or so.

I have had two impact pullers shatter on me, so I use an RCBS collet puller exclusively. I admit that I almost never have occasion to try and pull a factory load, but when I do, I put a round in the press and run the stem of the seating die down until it contacts the nose of the bullet. Then, I remove the loaded round and run the stem down another turn or turn and a half. I then run all the cartridges to be pulled through the seating die, setting the bullet a few thousandths deeper and breaking the grip of the crimp. It also works with loads that have cold-welded the bullets to the case.

Twist? Thanks

From Outdoor Hub today: https://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2017/05/04/terrifying-video-turkey-hunter-14-year-old-son-get-shot-road-hunters/

Way to go, gang! Congratulations!

Sent you a PM.

Saw the first one here this morning, but we're at 4,400 ft in a valley between two mountain ranges.

Gone from my mine, too.

Can't wait to see what you get--I have had nothing but bad luck in that unit. (Surely, it's not incompetence!)

I have been using hearing aids for about 20 years, both ITC ("in the canal") and behind the ear. Both kinds are programed to shut down at loud noises, including gun shots, but neither offers any significant protection against further damage to your hearing from gunfire. Both will amplify wind noise under certain conditions, something that has never been a problem with the muffs. About all that I can add is, if you haven't been there, you really don't know what you're talking about.

Having ruined most of my hearing with over 60 years of hunting and shooting, I now try to preserve what I have left. Starting three years ago, I tried a variety of ear protection devices and finally settled on a set of Howard Leight Impact Sport electronic ear muffs (http://www.howardleight.com/ear-muffs/impact-sport). They are light, effective, and amplify normal sounds with a variable control, while shutting down the noise of gunshots. I can wear them all day while hunting elk or deer, and I can once again hear animals in the wild. You can't believe how nice it is to be able to clearly hear elk talking and bugling once again. All the guys in my elk camp carry two-way radios, in case someone needs help with an animal or plans change. It's nice to plug in the radio and hear transmissions in your ear protection without spooking nearby animals, especially when you are in the middle of a stalk. There are many other brands to choose from, but the Howard Leights are light enough and comfortable enough to wear all day without fatigue.

I have 53 pieces of R-P 7mm Mag brass, once-fired, resized and cleaned, and another 12 that are once-fired, resized, cleaned and primed. If you're interested, please PM me with an offer.

Taxonomically, they are ungulates and included in the order Artiodactyla, which are even-toed ungulates. Pigs are in the family Suidae, which includes all of the wild pigs, as well as domestic hogs. Javelina are in the adjacent family Tayassuidae, which contains only five species, all peccaries, one of which is the one that we call javelina. The family falls between Suidae (true hogs) and Hippopatamidae (two extant species). Rodentia (rodents) are a completely different order and in no way closely related to ungulates.

For the sake of argument, elk and red deer/stag are genetically identical, which is why they can produce viable, fertile offspring. If you took the DNA from a North American elk and a European red deer/stag, you couldn't tell the two apart by species. I sat in on a conservation genetics class almost 10 years ago and we discussed the paper and the species' genetics. I wish I still had that paper. Technically, they should have the exact same scientific name. Taxonomically, they should probably be subspecies, but it will likely never get published or recognized as such because of the record books. Evolving on separate continents for 10,000 years is what has lead to differences in antler growth and vocalizations, but they are still genetically identical. We don't call bull elk stag and cow elk hinds because we do our own thing compared to Europe/Asia. Its like "orthopedic" in NA and "orthopaedic" in Europe. Bill is correct in that Audad are more genetically akin to goats than sheep and I doubt any interbreeding would result in viable offspring, thus making them true hybrids, but arguing over common vernacular is kind of mute. Its kind of like when people tell me they've seen chicken hawks or timber rattlesnakes here in Arizona. Rather than trying to correct everyone and sound righteous (like I used to 20 years ago), I just start talking about it with them. heck, the biologist/taxonomist in me has even learned to start saying "Coos" when referring to those little whitetails! Having said all of that, I'm with Hoghutr and DesertBull in that hunting and harvesting a nice rambilly is one of my bucket list items! But for those of us that don't have any idea it is interesting conversation and enlightening knowledge wise!!! Like others have said, looks incredibly interesting and fun to hunt and would love for my wife to stick a tag in my Christmas/Birthday stocking!!! It must be late and two long days of being the single dad with my wife out of town must have caught up to me. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to take that as a compliment for contributing, or a "shut the #$@! up!" My intention was to contribute to the very interesting conversation and enlightenment. As you can probably tell, I love genetics, especially when it comes to conservation and what we do. Like Phil Cramer said earlier, I still call them rams and ewes and always have. Like you and others, I just want to hunt one! At one time, I almost had my wife talked into letting me put in for an Ibex tag in NM. Those are definitely goats! Absolutely not the shut up version, some of you guys truly know your stuff and some of us truly are clueless, I mean, a Javelina is for sure a pig right .For example, one of the best three way cross breed of pigs is Hampshire boar to a York sow then come back and breed that offspring with a Duroc and you have one of the best meat pigs on the market!!! But hey they are all pigs right??? Honestly was meaning that some of these topics like when you were helping us dissect the different snakes......I was very interested in the information you provided. I don't read much but I do read CWT every day I am in internet range and I have learned tons from the different sides that people present so don't "shut the #$@! up!" Now to show my ignorance on the subject I am assuming the AOUDAD is an imported critter right? Thanks! That's what happens when you're trying to get two kids to two different places at the same time while the next day's carefully laid out schedule changes. I also call javelina pigs even though I know better! Pretty sure they're rodents (my personal favorite to correct)! And, yes, they are nonnative and were imported. I believe the New Mexico population was the result of audad (also Barbary Sheep) escaping from a private ranch somewhere north of Carlsbad. Texas...oh, Texas. I think Texas has more nonnative, introduced game animals than native ones! My brother-in-law in Laredo actually turned me on to Audad hunting, but he wants to get his the old-fashioned Texas way. He wants to pay good money to sit over a feeder and wait for a good one to come in, same as how he wants to get a 7x7 elk someday. SMH... I know your the scientist but since you also think the world is like a billion years old.. I think they declassified javelina and know longer think they are a rat. The javelina is native to the Western Hemisphere while true pigs are native to Eastern.. So my question is why is it not just called a western hemisphered wild pig? Oh and i still wanna kill one of those sheep goat things! Especially now that I know they don't taste like a sheepgoat Earth is actually more than a billion years old, my friend! I was joking about the javelina/rodent thing. People try to tell me all the time that they are rodents and it makes me laugh. Javelina are not even in the pig family, which is why they aren't called a western hemisphered wild pig. Taxonomically, they are in the same order as pigs (Artiodactyla), but a different family. Their closest relatives are, in fact, pigs and hippos. Yes, you read that right: hippopotamuses (hippopatami?). No North American relative, but the Tayassuid family is known from the fossil record from all continents except Australia and Antarctica, so they were native almost all over at one point. And I still want to hunt an Audad/Barbary Sheep and shoot a nice Ram/billy, too! Which possibly explains some of my relatives!!! I have met a fair number of people who have javelina confused with the capybara, a pig-sized rodent from South America. Curiously, I never heard them called rodents until I moved to the Arizona-New Mexico border region. For some reason, it seems to be a fairly common misconception around here.

Nice story, but unfortunately, this is fantasy. All exotic ungulates introduced in Texas, beginning as early as the late 1920s, were purchased from zoos--originally from the San Diego Zoo which had a large captive breeding facility at a ranch in southern California. Wild ungulates imported to the U.S. were subject strict quarantine protocols to prevent the introduction of diseases from undeveloped countries that could conceivably affect domestic livestock. Those animals that were released from quarantine could only be kept in approved zoos or zoological parks and could not be released to the wild. However, the offspring of these animals were not subject to such restrictions. Belle Benchley, who became director of the San Diego Zoo in 1927; was largely responsible for making the zoo's captive breeding facility a money making operation rather than a drain on the budget. Many of the animals that they were breeding--especially large ungulates--had become too numerous even for the large ranch. She began to aggressively market and trade these animas. She soon saturated the market, which consisted mostly of other zoos, and there weren't that many with spare cash in their coffers in the early years of the depression. In the late 1920s, Ms. Benchley somehow made the acquaintance of several wealthy Texans who owned ranches which they had purchased primarily for hunting. E. H. Friedrich, who made his fortune in heating and refrigeration, had purchased the Rickenbacker Ranch northwest of San Antonio. He was among the very first, if not the first, to buy and release a variety of exotic ungulates from the San Diego Zoo on his ranch. Some of his hunting buddies also bought animals for their ranches. About the same time, Ms. Benchley began corresponding with Caesar Kleberg who was helping his cousin Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. organize the management of the King Ranch. Caesar was a wildlife enthusiast and he convinced Bob Kleberg to buy and release several species on the King Ranch about this same time. By the end of World War II, the Texas ranches were having the same kinds of surpluses as the San Diego Zoo. The sale and release of exotic ungulates began to spread rapidly, although it remained centered on Edwards Plateau, or Hill Country, of central Texas. Charlie Schreiner, whose family owned the YO Ranch near Kerrville, aggressively promoted the hunting of exotic ungulates, and the ranch became world famous for its exotic animal hunts. A number of ranches began looking at animals which had not yet been imported. They would buy these animals in Africa, Asia, India, and Europe and donate them to zoos with the understanding that some of the progeny would go to the benefactors. As a result, there are now more than 27 species of free-ranging exotic ungulates in Texas, most (if not all) of which can be hunted, if you have the money.