With all the recent Politics on the big island.Is it still possible to hunt mouflon there.If so who should i contact for a future hunt.I'm a new member to the club.

There are Mouflon on the big island. near South Point.
There ia an outfitter named Eugene Yapp that has hunts for them. I do not know anybody that has hunted with him.

Did hunt some pigs near there last year with a friend of a friend.

VERY IMPORTANT! The purebred, free range mouflon sheep were located almost exclusively on the Kahuku Ranch on Mauna Loa Mtn, Big Island, Hawaii. Gene Yap (South Point Safaris) had exclusive rights to hunt that ranch. I (Dennis Campbell), along with literally hundreds of other people, hunted the ranch with Gene and it was just wonderful.

Unfortunately, in July 2003, the U.S. Park Service purchased the ranch and incorporated it into Volcanoes National Park. Gene was hunting the very day this happened, and they locked him inside the gates. They cut the old locks off and put new ones on.

Gene has successfully guided a handful (five or six) of clients to mouflons on small properties adjacent to the ranch/park. However, I think he has given up on this recently.

The Park Service has been doing its best to exterminate all non-indigenous wildlife from Mauna Loa Mtn. since they purchased this property. They have used helicopters, professional hunters, and other means to do this. There has even been some authorized hunting allowed on a lottery permit system. When a person's name is drawn, there is a stipulation that they have to shoot everything they see... females, babies, etc. They really are trying to kill them all.

Bottom line, for all practical purposes there is no more free range purebred mouflon hunting in Hawaii. There are some outfitters offering hunts in different places, but the rams are not purebred.

RECOMMENDATION: There are several places in Europe to hunt purebred mouflons. Spain is one, but is a little pricey. The hunt is great and worth the money, but if a person is a little more price conscious, they might want to consider another European country. The OVIS magazine is a good place to find out who the best operators are.

Hope all of this helps set the record straight.

DENNIS CAMPBELL
Executive Director
Grand Slam Club/Ovis

Being originally from Kona, Hawaii. I hunted Kahuku Ranch for Mouflon with both Gene Yap as well as other ranch hands before Gene got the concession, however, I also saw feral sheep in very close proximity to the Kahuku Ranch and surrounding areas, therefore, I personally question the "purebred" as claimed. I have also seen Mouflon on other areas of the Big Island which appeared as pure as the ones found on Kahuku Ranch. Also, there is a band of Mouflon on the Island of Lanai. Since there are no other sheep on Lanai, wouldn't the Mouflon from Lanai be considered as purebred also, and shouldn't a hunter be allowed the Mouflon from Lanai into OVIS? If so, I know that the Lodge at Koele on Lanai offers a pretty reasonable hunt package...around $3500 including lodging at a first class resort.

The reason that the sheep from Mauna Loa were counted by GSCO for the Ovis World Slam as purebred and free range was researched.

Wildlife biologist Michael Frisina spent a week there during the rut observing the area and the sheep.He determined that they were in fact both free range and purebred.

Also, I went through the records from the Kahuku original release. They released certifiable European mouflon from two different zoos from the mainland. The sheep thrived.

The geography of Mauna Loa and the surrounding jungle of the Kahuku held the sheep within a relatively close proximity.The sheep all migrated out of the jungle forest for the breeding season to the open area of Mauna Loa above treeline. The agressive nature of the mouflon rams precluded encroachment of non pure sheep.

To state differently and more concisely: the geography and provability of the genetics is what made the mouflon sheep of Mauna Loa and the Kahuku acceptable for the Ovis World Slam.

This was an exception to our normal rules. The Williams ranch of west Texas is also an exception but for Armenian mouflon and Red sheep rather than European mouflon. The factors are the same...geography and proveable genetics.

Therefore, European mouflon sheep will now only be accepted by GSCO from free range herds in Europe.

Dennis Campbell
Executive Director