Old One Eye
Early in the morning on Wednesday 11/19/03, along a stretch of highway that has come to fascinate tourists and locals alike, the end of an Anchorage icon came abruptly with the sound of an single shot from a high powered rifle and the sound of a terrified, wounded animal stumbling and falling off of a 40 foot ledge, to come crashing down the rocky slope.
This sheep known as Old One Eye was one of the largest and oldest of the Dall Sheep that inhabit the rocky, jagged slopes along the south facing mountains along the Seward Highway. This is an area that is slammed with heavy snows, freezing rain, and gail force winds at almost any time of the year. The hardy Dall sheep and mountain goat that inhabit these ridges and slopes face severe challenges in order to just survive, let alone thrive. They live their whole lives in a world that few humans will ever have the balance or endurance to even enter. They must avoid wolves, coyotes, bears, and eagles and stick together in highly developed social groups.
To have a dignified animal, such as Old One Eye, shot from the road by a poacher in search a mount for his walls or a full winter cape is sickening. This poacher not only took the life of a patriarch to the Dall sheep community which has adapted to let mankind observe it, but robbed Anchrorage of part of its identity. Alaska is a wild place in many ways, but the mentality that humans should domintate and manage every aspect of wilderness is misguided. The results of this attitude can be plainly seen in the difficulties that other species have faced in the past.
Of course, this is just my opinion...
To see the Anchorage Daily News story about the incident please click: http://www.adn.com/front/story/4416838p-4409038c.html
Any info please call the AK State Troopers at 269-5954 or Barney's Sports Chalet in Anchorage.
There is a reward fund well in excess of $3000 for information leading to an arrest. The troopers have a good idea who committed this crime but just need someone to come forward to solidify their case.
The plan is to salvage Old One Eye and have a taxidermist mount him so that he can be used as a traveling exhibit to educate the public about Dall sheep and the problems of poaching and wildlife misuse, abuse.
Thank you for reading this section and please keep an eye out for suspicious activity.
