Fish and Wildlife see increase in meat hunters

By Lori Larsen Camrose and District Fish and

Wildlife

Enforcement

Services (FWES) reported another busy season of hunting in 2022, seeing an increase in the number of night hunting calls, which seemed to be focused on elk and the number of harvested moose, leading Camrose and District FWES District Officer Lorne Rinkel to believe more people were hunting for sustenance.

“In September and October, we received an inordinately high amount of night hunting calls, and that is pre-rifle season,” noted Rinkel “The bulk of them were between Bashaw and Edberg.”

Rinkel said that while it is not unusual to receive a few night hunting complaints, there were several during the 2022 hunting season indicating a pattern. “It was consistent enough to lead me to believe that we had a night hunting issue,” which lead to investigating the incidents.

Through investigations, Rinkel determined that the subjects of the bulk of the complaints were indigenous hunters exercising rights as set out by a Supreme Court of Canada decision that allows indigenous people to hunt lawfully at night, on private land, as long as they have permission or are on Crown Lands and conduct the hunts in a safe manner.

“There were no violations detected, but we did receive a lot of calls.”

Rinkel feels that the focus of these particular hunters was a large herd of elk that frequent the area, and that the elk were mostly hunted for meat. “When pressured at all, elk quickly become nocturnal animals. The impact of our poor economy, and high meat prices may have possibly led to the increase in night hunting complaints.”

Investigating night hunter complaints comes with a high amount of risk for officers; however, Rinkel was relieved to report that all of the complaints he had to investigate ended up being persons within their legal rights and posed no risk to his or others safety.

Investigations into night hunting over baits near Edberg were also initiated, and are still in progress.

As a result of the October 31 heavy snowfall in the region, the November 1 opening for rifle season took on what Rinkel referred to as, a hunter’s dream, with the exception of the road conditions.”

He said that the large amount of snow, colder temperatures and high wind made for hard packed snow conditions on the grounds which resulted in a lot of hunters being unable to leave the roadways without getting stuck.

“People still got out, but there was a way higher concentration of what we call road hunters. Even a lot of the roads were not being graded, so normal access to a lot of the hunting areas was hampered in November.”

He also noted that as a result of inclement weather the animals tend to congregate earlier in the season. “When you have those bad conditions the animals tend to gravitate to areas of cover and food. Normally, they might be scattered out throughout the whole district. That kind of weather tends to concentrate the different species to certain areas.”

Rinkel said that he experienced an average amount of hunters but they were concentrated on roads.

The 2022 hunting was also an overtly successful season for moose hunters. “Just about everybody that had a moose tag got their moose in November,” explained Rinkel. “I have never checked so many successful moose hunters. There were a lot of moose in this whole district (Viking to Hardisty to Bashaw).”

While Rinkel admitted he is not sure whether or not the number of tags were increased but said there was a lot of moose harvested in his district.

“I do know that a lot of landowners felt the popula- tion of moose was a little high, based on the amount of vehicular crashes, injured people and damaged fences that come along with too many moose.”

He said that moose, like elk, are popular meat animals, noting that he definitely saw a steady uptick of people hunting for meat.

He added that he saw a bit of a decline in the amount of out-of-area hunters, which may be attributed to the higher costs of fuel, specifically diesel.

Rinkel was happy to report that there was a reduction in complaints for trespassing, which he said could be in part to the lack of access and colder weather.

The usual concentration of hunters was seen between Viking and Edmonton. “Ryley, Viking and Lougheed are typically the most popular areas for hunting.”

Depredation

Outside of conducting investigations for hunting infractions, Rinkel said he experienced the most calls for haystack depredation since he came to Camrose over seven years ago.

“The animals have certainly congregated this season, whether it is elk, or moose or deer, since November into December, January, which has resulted in us receiving calls then we go and inspect loss of agricultural products (specifically hay).”

The officers will make of the complaints he addressed. “A farm near the Battle River had 80 acres of standing corn that they planned to turn their cattle onto. The landowner had a drone surveying their land and counted 32 moose in an 80-acre patch of corn. Needless to say, it was essentially destroyed by the moose before they put cattle into it.”

Major investigation

Combined with an increase in meat hunters and harsher weather conditions the amount of major investigations were down; however, one major investigation that recently went through the court system, resulted from what Rinkel referred to as a fairly normal vehicle stop for the purposes of checking hunting compliance.

“Several weapons and firearms were recovered (during the initial stop), and two people were arrested for violations of weapons prohibitions.” recommendations to the complainants and then forward the inspection documents to Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) who in turn will send out an AFSC adjuster to determine what level of compensation will be awarded for loss of hay to wildlife.

One of the suspects was charged with a total of 32 total counts, eight pursuant to the Criminal Code of Canada, three were Traffic Safety Act related and the balance of 21 were pursuant to the Wildlife Act.

“This ties back to the type of winter we had,” explained Rinkel. “The rut for deer is November and they expend a tremendous amount of energy during the rut chasing and herding. Their rut doesn’t change despite the weather but they are burning energy at a way higher rate so come the month of December when they are more or less going out of the rut, the males, especially, are in poor condition, they have little to no fat reserves. Most years, they can recover, but for years such as this, they start going to haystacks.”

Rinkel further explained that even though the deer, and in some instances moose, may be eating hay, their guts are not set up to process it properly. “So even though they are eating hay and ruining it, a lot of them still won’t make the winter. Come April, we will start to see the actual winter kill.”

He said that moose tend to have less of a problem with these winters because they are browsers, nipping buds above the snow.

Rinkel describes one

“In a follow-up interview with the suspect, it was determined that he had shot seven different big game animals without licenses.”

Moving forward to spring, Rinkel said that the area will likely see the return of vast amounts of water foul including large flocks of snowgeese, which increases concern over the Avian flu virus.

“The government is really concerned about Avian flu and the fact that it is now jumping to mammals, specifically coyotes, skunks, fox and domestic dogs that are scavenging the dead birds,” commented Rinkel.

“More hunters are gloving up and taking precautions when cleaning animals.”

On a final note, Rinkel stated that over the past year the Camrose Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Services district expanded in size to include Ryley, Holden and Tofield, north to Highway 14 from Edmonton to Viking, and is still operating on one officer.

“I get out as much as I can. People may not see me at all in one area, it is only a month (hunting season), but I might be entirely over by Lougheed (for example) because of the complaints.”

Residents are reminded to call the RAP line 1-800-642-3800 to report any suspicious activity.