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The Wyoming Game and Fish reports that some limited quota licenses are still available for elk, deer and antelope. Licenses are available for both resident and nonresident hunters.
Some big game seasons have closed, others will be closing in a few days and others are just getting underway. A listing of areas with licenses available can be found on the Game and fish Web site. Click on Leftover License Availability, then go to the leftover lists for the desired species.
Full price and reduced price deer, antelope and elk licenses are available. Reduced price licenses can be purchased as "stand alone" licenses or in addition to the regular full price licenses. Regulation provides that after the drawing, hunters can obtain up to four doe/fawn licenses in certain areas for each species. The post-drawing license fee for resident doe/fawn licenses is $22 for adults and $14 for youth under 18. These same licenses are available to nonresidents for $34 for adults and $19 for nonresident youth.
According to WGFD biological services supervisor Reg Rothwell, the reduced price licenses are an important wildlife management tool. "People who obtain these licenses are helping the department manage big game herds by providing harvests that sustain them at their population objectives or reduce their numbers to objective," Rothwell said.
Rothwell explains that population objectives are based on habitat evaluations and consultation with land management agencies, sportspersons and landowners. Recommendations on hunting seasons and license quotas for regular and reduced price licenses are then presented to the public every spring at a series of meetings throughout the state. Those recommendations are based on analysis of data from the previous year and the estimated size of each herd compared to its population objective.
All leftover licenses including doe/fawn, cow/calf and regular price licenses are now being sold at any of the 100 fully automated license agents in the state. In previous years, regular price licenses remaining after the drawing were only sold at Game and Fish offices, and leftover reduced price licenses were only sold at license agents. A listing of automated license agents where these licenses can be obtained can also be found on the Game and Fish Web site, http://gf.state.wy.us/index.asp.
Many of the remaining licenses are on private lands. The Game and Fish advises hunters to make sure they have access to hunt prior to obtaining a license. Persons with questions on access and licenses can contact Game and Fish regional offices or call the Game and Fish in Cheyenne at (307) 777-4600.
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