view raw text
ALBERTA PROTECTED GAME INCREASE The Alberta provincial game laws have been amended to permit the shooting of prairie chickens during the last two weeks in October and ex ¬ tended the season for wild sheen and goats to Novcriiber 1 according to a bulletin of the Grand Trunk Pacific railway Prairie chickens have been protected for two years and the season for sheep and goats formerly extended from September 1 to October 14 only with a limit of two males per hunter hunterPrairie Prairie chickens or sharptailed grouse were being rapidly decimated in the prairie provinces a few years ago from a variety of causes One of course was the scatter gun and this was con ¬ trolled by law Other causes included hawks crows and coyotes all of which destroy the old and young chickens and the eggs eggsTherefore Therefore the sportsmen during the inhibited period having been waging sharp warfare on the wild enemies of the prairie chicken with the result that the latter have increased in such marked numbers as to justify a brief open season No ¬ vember which was open season in past years re ¬ mains tightly closed This is to afford a better fighting chance for the birds when the snow drives them into trees and straw stacks stacksExtension Extension of the sheep and goat season was for two reasons First was the fact that the govern ¬ ment protection during most of the year has brought a considerable increase in their numbers The other reason was that the season for moose does not open until November 1 and this In the past few years lias compelled the tourist hunter to spend two weeks in idleness after shooting sheep and goats or else forego entirely the pleasure of a moose hunt huntThe The increasing importance of the mountains of central and northern British Columbia and Alberta as a game field and the rapid settlement especially of tiie farm lands in Alberta and the Nechako and Bnlley valleys of British Columbia have brought provincial game laws under close surveillance with the result that no move to improve game conditions is overlooked
