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ARTIFICIAL SELECTION A STUDY LAUNCHED IN 1972 SUGGESTS TROPHY HUNTING MAY HURT THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP’S VIABILITY. ADVOCATE REPORTER MARYANN BARR EXAMINES HOW THE SPECIES IS BEING MANAGED
Almost four decades of data on bighorn sheep west of Red Deer has confirmed that artificial selection — trophy hunting animals with the largest horns — is having a negative effect on the herd. That sends a signal that the same could apply to all Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep — a natural species found only in Alberta and B.C., and Alberta’s official mammal. At the same time, Alberta Environment and Parks is looking at changes to the 2016 bighorn sheep hunting regulations that could see older, and fewer, animals harvested. MARY-ANN A study established in BARR 1972 has focused on a herd of bighorn sheep on Ram BARRSIDE Mountain, a somewhat isolated area in the Rocky Mountains, located about 80 km west of Rocky Mountain House. David Coltman, a University of Alberta biological sciences professor, co-authored the paper Intense selective hunting leads to artificial evolution in horn size with Gabriel Pigeon, Marco Festa-Bianchet and Fanie Pelletier, scientists at the Université de Sherbrooke. Last month the paper was accepted for publication in the reputable peer-review journal, Evolutionary Applications. Coltman said researchers have been able to study Ram Mountain bighorns over a long period of time when the rams were intensely harvested, to when regulations changed and there was less harvesting, to most recently where no hunting has been allowed. Hunting was closed because the population had become quite small and there were very few trophy rams available. While the artificial selection process is a rapid one, after it stops, the time it takes for natural recovery is very slow, Coltman and his associates note. “Our analyses revealed a significant decline in
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Contributed photos by GABRIEL PIGEON
TOP: A group of Ram Mountain bighorn sheep. ABOVE: Four rams from the Ram Mountain bighorn sheep wait patiently in a temporary trap used by researchers. Contributed photo by JULIEN MARTIN
RIGHT: A group of Ram Mountain bighorn rams and ewes outside a trap used by researchers. genetic value for horn length of rams, consistent with an evolutionary response to artificial selection on this trait.” “The decline in genetic value for male horn length stopped, but was not reversed, when hunting pressure was drastically reduced. Our analysis provides support for the contention that selective hunting led to a reduction in horn length through evolutionary change. It also confirms that after artificial selection stops, recovery through natural selection is slow.”
Please see TROPHY HUNTING on Page A2
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