Hunting & Fishing

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game will soon close the hunt for the Mulchatna caribou herd for the rest of the season. The closure will take effect this Friday, Jan. 31, at 11:59 p.m. The restriction is a conservation measure following the herd’s dramatic population drop to half the size that it was three years ago. The hunt was originally scheduled to close in March.

Midnight on Dec. 31 brings the close of 2019 and also the close of the hunting season for Mulchatna Caribou on federal lands. The federal season, originally scheduled to end in March, is closing early because of low herd numbers. However, hunting on state land for these animals will remain open. KYUK talked with managers on both sides about their decisions.

Why the size of Mulchatna Caribou Herd has dramatically declined may not be known, but some things are known about how people can help conserve the herd, which has dropped to half the size it was three years ago. KYUK held a call-in show with local subsistence users and federal managers to share local knowledge of the Mulchatna Caribou and to learn how federal authorities plan to manage the hunt. These are the take-ways.

The Mulchatna Caribou Herd is half the size it was three years ago. The herd has dropped from over 27,000 caribou in 2016 to 13,500 caribou in 2019, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game estimates. To help conserve the herd, state and federal managers have tightened hunting regulations, restricting the bag limit to one caribou. In Game Unit 18, on federal lands, that caribou must be a bull, and the hunt is limited to federally qualified local subsistence users. KYUK hosted a call-in show on Nov. 19 to discuss these regulatory changes, answer questions, and hear from local users about what they've learned about caribou.

Three years ago, there were over 27,000 caribou in the Mulchatna Caribou Herd. Now there are less than half of that, only 13,500, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game surveys. There are suspects for the decline but no identified causes.

The Mulchatna Caribou Herd population has dropped to half the size that it was three years ago. To conserve the herd, the state issued an emergency order reducing the bag limit from two caribou to one. Now federal managers have released even tighter hunting restrictions. With the herd’s decreased population, some people want the hunt shut down entirely.