Keeping Debehe on the Mountains
Keeping Debehe on the Mountains
Last year, TCG’s Wildlife Department joined a new Stone’s sheep (debēhe in Tāłtān) project in Spatsizi, to study the effects of hunting on sheep behavior. In March 2024, in –40° C, they assisted the collaring of forty sheep. A film crew tagged along to shoot an episode for Dan Cabela’s series The Hard Truths of Conservation.
Hard Truths of Conservation Trailer
Link to webpage: https://www.hardtruthsofconservation.com/
Link to socials: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-c7ZTxOfxI/
Here’s Dan’s description of the episode he did on Tahltan Territory, alongside TCG’s Wildlife Guardians and Department Director:
“Wild sheep are one of, if not the most-iconic species of big game in North America. Their resilience to survive in some of the most rugged, yet picturesque, places has drawn in hunters from around the world. However, like many conservation issues today, wild sheep are not immune to trouble in the areas they call home.
In this episode, I travel to the northern wilderness of British Columbia to explore the area and shine a light on the work being done on the mountain inside and outside of hunting season.”
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-0B6IkOuxf/
The episode featuring Tahltan Territory premiered on the History Channel in August 2024. It’s now available to watch here:
Spatsizi Stone’s Sheep Project or “Be Bold for Stone’s Sheep”
Under predictable hunting pressure, big game species, like Stone’s sheep, may make significant changes to their behaviour to reduce encounters with hunters.
Sheep might respond to hunters by changing:
The timing of their activities
Their distribution on the landscape
Their movement behaviour
The types of habitats they use
These changes are likely to have energetic and predation risk consequences on sheep…
… and may result in changes to individual fitness, population health, and hunter experience.
Study Location: Spatsizi
Above: Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Park
The Spatsizi Stone’s Sheep Project aims to identify how hunting affects Stone’s sheep behaviour.
Project Objectives
Assess:
- historic and current local community knowledge of Stone’s sheep
- seasonal range use and behavior
- how human disturbances affect Stone’s sheep, mortality factors, and herd health
- how hunter pressure/harvest efforts affect long-term and traditional sheep ranges, as well as hunter success
The 3-year project studies how hunting and wildlife management in Spatsizi affect sheep behavior, habitat use, and hunter success. Writing in Mountain Hunter magazine, Gray Thornton, President of the Wild Sheep Foundation, stresses: “this project is not about allocation of the resource but rather how the resource reacts to hunter and non-hunter human activity.”
Project Partners
The study utilizes:
1. Data from GPS-collars on Stone’s sheep
2. Camera traps
3. Hunting activity surveys + tracking
The results will help inform hunting regulations, Stone’s sheep management and conservation, and better understanding of the effects of hunting on mountain ungulate ecology.
