Includes two 4 foot fiberglass poles, BIG SHOT head, 200 feet of Neon 3 line, throwline bag, 8 and 10oz throw weights, replacement BIG SHOT tubing and heavy-duty carrying case.
The Bear Necessities BIG SHOT, two 4' poles, Trigger, 200' of throwline, 10 and 12 oz. Notch throw weights, canvas line bag, plastic carrying case (50"×7"×9"), replacement tubing. (0)	
The site (www.ilaohu.org, which stands for “love tigers”) has news, opinions, multimedia information about tigers and a forum where people can discuss tiger-related topics.
The forum is still seeking approval from relevant organizations and will be launched soon, according to a notice on the site.
“Scientists compare large-scale carnivores like tigers to a ruler that measures the health of the ecological system. To save the wild tiger is much more than saving a species; it is to save the ecological system for human beings,” said Ge Rui, a senior official with the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Statistics show that the number of wild tigers has fallen to less than 3,000 worldwide. In China, there are less than 50 wild tigers, among which the number of Manchurian Tigers stands at less than 20.
In the last century, three out of eight tiger sub-species became extinct, and the habitat of wild tigers has shrunk to 7 percent of its original size.
“The protection of tigers requires joint efforts from governments, wildlife protection organizations and all Chinese people,” said Xie Yan, a researcher at the Institute of Zoology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
BLACK HILLS The sixth mountain lion season in the state opens Saturday and the recent snowfall should make for excellent tracking opportunities.
This year, the harvest quota was increased again, but this will mark the first year hunters will be permitted to pursue the large cats inside Custer State Park.
Up to 10 licenses may be sold, for $150 each, for the Custer State Park season. Only five lions may be killed within the 71,000-acre state park during the inaugural season.
John Kanta, regional wildlife manager with the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks, said an estimated 18 lions are within Custer State Park, according to the radio-collar tracking of lions throughout the Black Hills.
Outside Custer State Park, wildlife officials set a quota of 45 lions, or 30 females. This is an increase of five lions total and five more females from the 2010 quotas.
The move to increase the number of lions killed comes following the publication of a state-wide mountain lion management plan that called for the population to be reduced to about 175 lions. Currently there are an estimated 225 lions in South Dakota’s Black Hills.
“It’s two paths to the same destination,” said Tony Leif, the State Game, Fish and Parks department’s wildlife division director, at an October meeting that set the quotas. “One is a safer route that offers more stability, but you chose one that will get you there a little faster. Both will get you to the same destination.”
South Dakota State University researcher Jonathan Jenks said the target population of 175 could be reached by 2013 through harvests of 45 lions annually for the next few seasons. He said the harvest could be backed down to 30 or 35 annually after that, which would put the quotas along the lines of the 2007 and 2009 hunting season.
Officials said that the reduction in mountain lions within the Black Hills would reduce the occurrence of problem lions and removal of those lions by the department. About 40 percent fewer lions would be killed by cars. It would increase health in the population and the reduction of disease, and prevent about 1,650 fewer big game animals from being killed annually by the big cats.
Hunters who kill a mountain lion within the Black Hills must submit it for inspection to the department’s Rapid City office within 24 hours. Successful hunters must call 394-2394 during working hours or state radio at 393-8121 during nights and weekends to report a kill and to arrange for inspection.
Hunters are encouraged to see if the quota has been reached prior to going hunting by logging onto the department’s Web site www.gfp.sd.gov. The information can be found under the mountain lion tab. Hunters who kill a lion after the season has been closed can be cited.
In the 2010 mountain lion season, 40 lions were killed in 41 days. It was the first time in the five years of the hunting season that the full quota was reached before the female sub quota. Sixteen males were killed and 24 females were killed. The sub quota was set at 25 female lions. Nearly 2,100 hunters bought licenses for the 2010 hunt.
Using a predator call to attract the lions remains the option with the highest success rate, although tracking the lions through snow and spotting and stalking the animals remain proven methods.
Nearly two-thirds of the way through my first two Big Years, I quiz myself: worthwhile or not? I’m not sure whether it’s this self enquirer or the stimulus of a certain kind of travel (I’ll write about this stimulating topic sometime soon), but weird ideas have begun popping up.
Sitting in a Lake Como cafe, at an outside seat under a white umbrella, tourists promenading before me, fat middle-aged local men behind me gassing on, leg still sore from yesterday’s fall, I read the 20th of 50 interviews in Danielle Krysa’s Creative Block: Get Unstuck, Discover New Ideas. Why I’m reading this is a mystery, because it doesn’t consider writers but visual artists, and not only am I a Pictionary disaster, I’ve struggled all my life to “understand” paintings, drawings, images, etc. But then I find this piece of “unblocking” advice from illustrator Justin Richel:
Take a couple large pieces of paper and cut them down into smaller parts between 5″ × 5″ and 10″ × 10″ (12 cm × 12 cm and 25 cm × 25 cm). You should have somewhere between twenty-five and fifty small pieces of paper. Without spending too much time on content, begin making marks or drawing loosely with your preferred medium on the paper. As you complete the marks, you may need to set them aside to dry; simply move to the next piece of paper and repeat until you have moved through the entire stack. Once you have moved through the entire stack, sort the pieces into three different piles. Ones that work , ones that don’t work , and ones that need work . In no particular order, finish the ones that work by adding the final touches. Work on the ones that need work and continue by making the ones that don’t work, work, by discovering what went wrong and how it can be “saved” if possible. Continue to work on the pieces until all or most are finished. You should now have a pile of fun starts, finished pieces, and some failures to learn from.
Flash . . . could I contemplate a Sketching Big Year even though my drawing/painting talent is demonstrably zero? Why does that thought excite me like it does? If contemplated, should the notion be pursued? Is 2017 a suitable candidate?