Bows and Arrows

Today is the first day of the eight day archery hunt on the refuge. Most hunters are here to pursue the white tailed deer, but can harvest as many feral hogs and Nilgai as they can shoot. Nilgai are Asian antelope that were brought to the area 100 years ago. Of course, they escaped and are now found throughout this area. They are big and can weigh up to 700 lbs. Along with the feral hogs, they have a detrimental effect on the refuge, hence there is no limit on the number of these animals taken.

Volunteers help man the hunter check station, so I headed over to the Outpost a little after eight to help get things set up. All hunters must check out each day when they leave the refuge and we record their license number and whether or not they were successful. We askeach hunter "Did you get anything?" and they usually answer "Yea, about 50 ticks!" Yuck! Glad I'm not out hunting. At least a dozen animals were taken today. The refuge supplies a cooler to keep the field dressed animals in during the hunt. It's not like Minnesota where you hang the deer from a tree in your yard to cool. Temps today were cool for here, but still in the mid 70's. Notice the bicycles in the back? Hunters must park on the road and bike or hike into the refuge to hunt. They come up with all sorts of trailers to hook onto the bikes to haul out the game back to their trucks.

Emma has a few things to say about today:

Hi Scruffy & Rascal,

Wow!!! What a workout my nose got this morning when I took my human on her daily constitutional! All those trucks parked along the side of our walking road and what smells there were! It made my hair stand on end like a javalina. I guess it was that stuff the hunters put on them so deer can't smell them. I was in doggie heaven. Now if I could only find a way to get off of this leash....

Thanks for stopping by.........talk to you soon, Judy