2/22/2005
Alabama Man Places Winning Bid for Nebraska Bighorn Hunt - Tom Keith

LINCOLN, Neb. – The Nebraska bighorn sheep management program got a big boost Saturday when a Alabama man placed the winning $83,000 bid for a permit to hunt bighorn sheep in Nebraska’s Pine Ridge in 2005. The proceeds from the auction go directly toward the state’s reintroduction and management of bighorn sheep.

Joe Glover of Sawyerville, Ala. was the winning bidder at the Grand Slam Club/Ovis Annual Conference auction, held over the weekend in Biloxi, Miss. Glover will receive four days of guide service, horse usage, lodging and meals at Fort Robinson Sate Park during the Nov. 26 to Dec. 18 hunting season.

Each year, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission conducts a lottery for one hunting permit and sporadically offers one permit for auction. The lottery permit allows a Nebraska resident to hunt during the season. The auctioned permit may be purchased by anyone. Each lottery winner and auction permit holder to date has harvested a full-curl ram from Nebraska’s Pine Ridge herd.

Applications for the 2005 Bighorn lottery permit are $20 and will be accepted through 5 p.m., August 12 at the Commission’s Lincoln office and can be made online at www.outdoornebraska.org. Online registrations will be accepted until midnight, Aug. 12.

Sales of permits through the lottery and auction support the bighorn management program, which is credited with returning bighorn sheep to the state after they were extirpated in the late 1800s. The most recent milestone reached by the program was the purchase and release to the Pine Ridge of 49 bighorn sheep from Montana. Another herd was started in the Cedar Canyon near Gering in 2001 with the release of 22 sheep purchased from Colorado.

The Cedar Canyon herd is now estimated to be more than 40 animals. The Pine Ridge herd, including the recent Montana releases, is estimated at about 190 animals.

 

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