Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Mulchatna Herd?

In 2002 I hunted the Mulchatna Herd in western Alaska. I must have seen 10,000 caribou and I shot two bulls. Now I hear that the herd is mostly depleted. The limit is only one. Not only that, but there are so few caribou that my outfitter will not even book caribou hunts any more. Anyone know the reasons for this decline?

2003 I saw maybe 100 caribou in about 10 days....
My friend just said it was too accessible, and the game dept let them keep shooting 2 bulls too long... too close to ANC and it got shot out....

They did have about 3000 caribou located just before I arrived but headed to a lake that had 13 camps set up on it so we headed a different direction...

My friend guided a hunt in that area in 2004 and had a father/son that shot a tiny bull, only bull they saw in 7 days....

Seems like Kotz is the place to go but it'll get shot out if all that pressure switches, assuming folks spend the money to get that far..

Jeff

When I hunted the mulchatna herd in 1998 there was plenty of animals. From what I remember they put the herd #'s as over 200,000 animals. But I also remember that the biologists were concernced that the herd was going to collapse because it was too big. That could have been what happened.

I believe they simply ate themselves out of their range, and there might have been a problem with disease as well. Herds will always cycle their numbers over time.

This is what I have heard as well. I have a friend that guided in the Mulchatna area quite a bit. He thinks the numbers dropped too quickly to be entirely attributed to excessive hunting pressure. I also hear the herd has moved further West of their normal range and started mingling with other herds. ???

Anyway, the outfitter he was guiding for doesn't offer caribou hunts anymore. He just offers brown bear and moose hunts in that area now.

Seems like Kotz is the place to go but it'll get shot out if all that pressure switches, assuming folks spend the money to get that far..

Jeff
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Jeff:

I don�t think Kotz will see the same kind of �Hunted Out� pressure as the Mulchatna Herd saw. We are just too far away, the herd is pushing 460,000+ and the area is too big. Last year it was estimated that there were about 1,000 out of region hunters and I will bet the numbers were lower this year. The Mulchatna herd just to damn close to Anchorage.Mat-Su and it will continue to get pounded. If we see a decline in our numbers it will be because of a die off-weather or disease I am guessing.

Walt

www.northwestalaska.com
Kotzebue, Alaska

Did the Mulchatna thing in 2001 and 2005. There appeared to be a marked absence of decent bulls the second go around. There were plenty of bulls, but they all looked to be 1,2, or 3 year olds with little stature. I'll not expend funds in that area until there's evidence of substantial improvement.

I just returned for a hunt out of Bethel and we saw around 3000 caribou with many good bulls in the first five days. After day 5, we didn't see another caribou. I am glad that we tagged out on day 5. We hunted close to the same area in 2004 and saw very few caribou. One theory is that caribou return to the same calving grounds every year and the large increase in the number of wolves and bears are killing large numbers of calves.

Walt,

I know you own a business in Kotz, and I have never heard anything but excellent feedback on you from this forum and others. My son was coming up from Florida and we were going to do bou & grizz. The first place I researched was Kotz because it would be a good fit from where I live in Barrow. The numbers of animals looked good but the more I found out I kept hearing about Air Taxi's parking guys on top of each other, right where a camp had just been, leaving them for 2-3 days extra (not because of weather) and then the big stink about waste. The waste issue sounds like a bandwagon locals are on to try and keep hunters from coming in there. Can you tell us what is actually happening there? We eventually went to the Brooks Range, got 3 very nice bulls and never saw another hunter or camp.

Hi Barrow neighbor!

Dude! I have been to Barrow a few times and even had a job offer many years ago but I always ask the same question� What do you do with your free time? The mountains are so far away and it is sooooo cold even by Kotzebue�s standards.

Ok enough is enough.

Kotzebue and hunting. First and fore most I do own an equipment rental business and I am not throwing a pitch in this post. We have great hunting and the country and the people are fantastic. I worked for the IHS hospital for some time and I have spent a lot of time in every village and many on the North Slope, if you ever have any questions please send me a PM and I will do my best to help you out. About 3 years ago we got a black eye up here because we had a number of flight services who places $ ahead of safety and the customers needs. Many people felt like Kotz was a bad place to hunt and choose to go to other places.

We see about 1,000 hunters up our way in the few weeks of caribou hunting each year and guys who don�t ask a lot of questions some times get dumped on top of other camps. I always insist that an educated hunter will have a much better experience and the only excuse for not knowing everything about where you are hunting is being lazy. We have so many great drainages to choose from that there is something for everyone but you need to get involved early and keep asking questions. I had a guy from back east who was upset with me because I told him it was too late to �throw together� a hunt when he called me in July. All of our good flight services book early and a hunter needs to start planning now for a fall 08 hunt, really now is not too early. I have already booked 4 hunts for next fall because the smart hunter starts early.

The local people are concerned about land use and waste of resources just like everyone else. They are not trying to keep out of region hunters but they do want people to understand where NANA lands are and that is not ok to hunt for horn just to �donate the meat� to the locals because they need it. We, the locals live up here 365/24/7 and have access to the resource year round. I can take as many animals as I need and like many other folks enjoy the hunt just like you do. So �donating or dumping� as we call it is just a no-no on a large scale. A little donated meat is fine and yes it is appreciated by those of us who can�t hunt but when 1,000 hunters expect to �dump� the meat you can see how it is viewed. It is all about respect of the resource and the culture.

If you�re willing to work with someone like me to find and hunt the better rivers you can have a fantastic trip but if you leave it up to the transporter to �Put you down in front of the herd�, well you get what you pay for!

Shoot me a PM if you need any help.


Walt
Northwest Alaska Back Country Rentals
www.northwestalaska.com

The natural cycle of caribou is to grow in population until there are to many animals for the habitat to support and then natural process takes care of that. That's the main reason however there are some other variables like disease, and a high number of wolves and bears in the region that are a factor also. I dont know what the numbers are in the herd right now, however i have not seen a single caribou this summer while flying, or out hunting. For residents it used to be 2 bulls and 3 cows per year. This year it is one bull and one cow. I sure hope the herd rebounds.

There's so much that isn't really known or predictable about caribou. I remember 10-15 years ago, when the NWA herd was coming close to 300 miles south of Kotz that some were saying then that the herd was due to crash. Some were concerned that hunters might affect that then but 400,000+ animals are not easily affected by a relatively few people with rifles - even if some do take their limit of 5 per day 2-3 times during the year. The herd has yet to crash and continues to grow but who really knows for how long.

As for leaving meat behind, it's true many will use "excess" moose meat. However, fall-killed bull caribou are hardly the choice edibles many people favor locally. They generally could care less about antlers and want a wide white rear end on their animal(s) - a fat cow in other words.