September 16th - 30th, 2024 Range Rider Update
The range riding season will come to a close at the end of the month, and until then the Team will be busy riding through the herds that remain, compiling and analyzing data, taking down game cameras, and wrapping up loose ends. Producers have mostly weaned calves and several herds are already being shipped out. By mid-October the riding schedule will be quite a bit slower, giving the Team more time to focus on miscellaneous tasks to close out the season.
Cattle herds are doing well overall and Range Riders have shifted focus to finding stray cattle in addition to normal rides looking at herd health, pasture infrastructure, and tracking wildlife activity. Every year a few cattle seem to get out of their pasture and finding them becomes a priority to reduce the number of unconfirmed losses at the end of the year, which is one of the main goals of this program.
There have been several losses since the last update, including three due to natural causes and a fourth was a confirmed grizzly bear depredation. The depredation was a calf, and, from the scene, it appeared that the calf had been attacked somewhere else and later succumbed to the wounds where it was found. Range Riders put game cameras on the carcasses and documented a sign larger grizzly bear foraging on the depredated carcass for two nights. Other than this activity, predator observations have been minimal.
General rifle season for pronghorn opens October 12th. Waterfowl hunting opened September 30th, and general archery for most ungulates has been open since the September 7th. The Centennial Valley offers abundant hunting opportunity, and increased traffic will be noticeable through the end of November. Hunters, just as a friendly reminder, please be respectful of the Centennial Valley and its community; do not trespass, practice good hunting ethics, clean up after yourself (i.e. garbage and toilet paper), and drive respectfully. Thank you!
There were three grizzly bear observations, including two game camera events and one depredation event. There was one black bear observation documented on game camera.
There were no wolf observations.
Elk, pronghorn, and moose are rutting. This means you’ll notice large groups of pronghorn across the valley with one or two males and many females. Elk are bugling and competing for females, and bull moose are similarly rutting and competing for breeding rights. Deer start rutting later in the fall, towards the end of October and into November.
The Team and the cameras cannot capture the entire Valley each day, so community reports are extremely valuable to understand how wildlife use the Valley. If you have any wildlife reports to share (big or small!) please contact Erika Nunlist, Wildlife Program Coordinator, at wildlife@centennialvalleyassociation.org. We look forward to hearing from you!
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