Im very curious about the Mouflon Sheep down in Ka'u.
Ive been following this story for a while but have not followed up on it. This is the last Update on Hunting in Hawaii for Mouflon I could find.
Published: March - 2008 in
http://www.huntingreport.com/
Until a few years ago, the Big Island of Hawaii was home to the world's largest pure-bred mouflon herd, an estimated 22,000 sheep. They were concentrated on 116,000-acre Kahuku Ranch, where Eugene Yap of South- point Safaris offered hunts for these animals. All of that came to an end when the US Park Service purchased the property in July 2003 and added it to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The Park Service proceeded to exterminate the mouflon and all other non-indigenous wildlife on the property. They even handed out subsidies to surrounding landowners to encourage the extermination of all exotics on their properties as well. Free-ranging purebred mouflons in Hawaii appeared to be doomed at that point.
But not so fast. Seems a small population of these sheep has escaped the slaughter and is still available for hunting. The only problem is, the available opportunity is very limited and could be easily overwhelmed. Consequently, subscribers are strongly urged to keep this discovery under their hats.
What seems to have happened is, a number of mouflon fled the killings fields of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and moved into neighboring state forests and other state-owned lands where the US Park Service cannot pursue them. Now fairly protected, the sheep have begun to flourish again with an estimated population of 200 sheep. Reports are that hunters have taken some great trophies there lately. The two forests are the Ka'u and Kapapala State Forest Reserves. All that is required to hunt them is a Hawaiian hunting license that costs $105. Access to the forests is free but can be tricky because they are surrounded by private property. The Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife can provide information on road access and the names of landowners who allow hunters to cross their properties for access.