Fall hunters topped the Fortymile quota, but a 100-bull winter hunt still opens Oct. 27

The winter Fortymile caribou hunt will open as scheduled Oct. 27 with room for 100 bulls, even though fall hunters already took more caribou than the state planned for the whole year, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said in an Oct. 21 advisory.

Fall hunters took 577 bulls, which the department said slightly exceeded the annual quota of 550. Its July plan had set aside 415 of those for fall and 135 for winter, Alaska News reported Sept. 1. In the fall, the road-accessible Zones 1 and 4 closed Aug. 21, a day after they opened.

The department said an Oct. 8 survey of the herd's makeup showed a "limited bulls only winter hunt is sustainable" without raising a conservation concern. The extra 100 bulls would bring the year's harvest to 2.5% of the herd, up from the 2% the quota was built on.

The herd is estimated at about 27,000 caribou, down slightly from last fall, Alaska News reported in July. That's below the 30,000 to 50,000 the herd's management plan aims for.

The winter quota splits 40 bulls for Zones 1 and 4 along the Steese Highway and 60 for Zone 3 along the Taylor Highway. Zones could close by emergency order on short notice, and hunters must call the Fortymile hotline at 907-267-2310 every day before heading out.

The permit, RC867, is at hunt.alaska.gov. Anyone who has taken a caribou anywhere in Alaska since July 1 can't hunt. The season runs through March 31.