There’s gophers in them there hills.
And for western Canadian outfitters, they represent a golden business opportunity in guided gopher hunts for Canadian and American sport shooters.
Lowell Davis, owner of Alpine Outfitters in Grande Prairie, Alta., says his company, which hosts guided hunts for deer, elk, wolves and black bear, started offering hunts for Richardson’s ground squirrels about four years ago.
Visitors pay roughly $300 a day for food, accommodations, transportation and a guide who arranges the hunt, spots for gophers and reloads spent magazines.
Read Also
Powdery mildew can be combine fire risk
Dust from powdery mildew can cause fires in combines.
Davis, who has been involved in the business for 16 years, said he never would have imagined people would pay to shoot gophers.
But the service is becoming more common, with a few Albertans now offering the service.
“We aren’t going to retire off of it but it helps the farmers and ranchers… and it’s fun.”
“We have a couple of groups coming out this year and we’re going to start shooting in about a week.”
Davis said the average gopher hunt involves two to four people and lasts for two or three days.
Visitors, mostly from eastern Canada and the United States, stay in local hotels and dine in local restaurants.
In most cases, a group will bag around 200 gophers per day, Davis said. But under ideal conditions, the numbers can be much higher.
In one hunt on a quarter section near Provost, Alta., the gophers were so thick that the landowner couldn’t seed a crop.
“We went in and shot there for basically four days and took out probably 75 or 80 percent of the gophers,” Davis said.
Most landowners who have serious infestations welcome responsible hunters, added Davis.
A well-organized hunt saves the landowner time, rehabilitates his land and can eliminate the need to buy poisons and set out bait.
“We’ve never had a rancher say no when we asked if we could shoot gophers on his land,” Davis said.
Gilbert Proulx, a wildlife biologist and researcher from Sherwood Park, Alta., says shooting can be an effective way to control severe gopher infestations.
Compared to poisons, it has a relatively low risk of causing residual poisoning in predators such as hawks, weasels, foxes, badgers and coyotes.
Neither shooting nor poisoning will achieve lasting control unless populations are reduced by 70 percent or more.
“Most weekend shooters will only shoot as long the shooting is easy,” he said.
“When the shooting gets difficult…they usually move to another field.”
Proulx, who is conducting research on gopher poisons and predation, said hunting parties are travelling to southwestern Saskatchewan from as far away as Ontario and British Columbia.
In some cases, they jump from field to field, shooting randomly without permission from landowners.
“It’s a real free for all. I’m a hunter myself so I’m not against shooting. I’m against irresponsible shooting.
“I think if you want to (get effective gopher control) it has to be more than a party.”
Proulx said gopher populations in most parts of southwestern Saskatchewan are down considerably this year, thanks largely to the weather.
A cold, wet spring has affected reproduction and in some areas, late snow and abundant rainfall have flooded burrows, drowning gophers.
Natural predators, especially badgers and long-tailed weasels, are also more plentiful.
Proulx said the widespread use of poisons such as liquid strychnine has also affected gopher numbers.
