Ibex and soay sheep in ireland

wirehairmax

I stumbled on a few youtube clips over the weekend of an american tourist hunter being given the grand tour of ireland. He shot a few sika, had the guinness and the stew, diddly di music etc, all lovely and positive images of ireland. He was then brought hunting irish ibex and soay sheep. Now I never knew either existed on this island but I'm open to correction. Have we been missing something as apparently irish ibex are totally unique and their origins date back 10000 years while I cant remember how the soay sheep got here. (ferry from scotland maybe?)

Has anyone any stories or further information from hunting either species on this island?

Feisar

There's a thread further down about it:

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2056386095/soay-sheep

Had never heard of Soay Sheep before and I always thought the "Ibex" were just goats gone feral. I can't find the video of yer man, will you put up a link.

wirehairmax

https://youtu.be/NckdzhT5W5I

https://youtu.be/WddNezXfUcc

DogfoxCork

lord 😂 that "outfitter" has no shame!

Richard308

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118100877#Comment_118100877

I think the Irish ibex are a bit like the leprechauns. Man some Irish people have no shame. I could be wrong. I googled and couldn’t find a single reference, asked a npws senior ranger. He laughed.

Feisar

On a slightly different note some of those old billy goats can be aggressive. One of them put it up to Dad and I a good few years back on an island on Lough Gara. Had to get back in the boat and scoot pretty sharpish, the billy came out into the water up to his chest and wasn't happy to say the least!

Grizzly 45

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118134980#Comment_118134980

Yup 100% ...A Leprechaun would be more common than an" Irish Ibex". [Capra ibex) Alpine Ibex, Steinbock,Boquetin are only found in the Alpine regions of Europe.

So going by what they shot there. Some feral goats,a Jacobs sheep and by the looks of it some local lads old breeding ram...Oh good Lord.

Had never heard of Soay Sheep before and I always thought the "Ibex" were just goats gone feral. I can't find the video of yer man, will you put up a link.

Ibex are a specific breed of ungulate[goat family of animals] only found up in the European Alps. They couldn't survive even on our highest mountain range as it is unsuitable terrain, below 1800 meters. Wonder Diamond outfitters do for that video any proper research on what is available to hunt in Ireland,as it looks like he was fed a line.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_ibex

DogfoxCork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118143354#Comment_118143354

fed a line?! more like a length of rope!😂

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118143354#Comment_118143354

Clearly not an Alpine Ibex. But Wild Goat is also know as the Common Ibex. And there's a Spanish version too.

I think that's what the boys are claiming here. That it's some other species of ibex. An undiscovered one by the looks of things as google only seems to turn up the boys offer those hunts. Feral goats I'd say

wirehairmax

https://www.texasmonthly.com/travel/how-texas-hunting-went-exotic/

Id say you'd have a better chance of finding irish ibex in texas!! He should have stayed closer to home

Bogwoppit

Christ that vid was pure cringe! Some aul farmer will be traipsing over the hill looking for his ram!

It’s pretty telling that they had to move further out from a couple of the animals to get a fair shot, difficult hunting that.

That ram at the end didn’t even flinch when the shot went off.

I didn’t think it was legal in Ireland to use game callers like they did for the sika?

JP22

I didn’t think it was legal in Ireland to use game callers like they did for the sika?

What about deer salt blocks?, I've seen them for sale here.

Cass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118158487#Comment_118158487

Calls are legal to sell, not legal to use because the Act doesn't prohibit the selling of them, ony their use. Section 35(d) of the 1976 Act. Applies to certain birds and most animals. Some exceptions include Duck, etc.

Salt licks, nothing that I know of makes them illegal, afaik. You cannot use poisonous or stupefying bait but the act doesn't say anything about a "common" salt lick. However the act does prohibit the use of bait which is designed to trap, ensare, injure, or facilitate the capture of a wild animal. So this could be an argument that its not permitted.

J.R.

CASS - "However the act does prohibit the use of bait which is designed to trap, ensnare, injure, or facilitate the capture of a wild animal. So this could be an argument that its not permitted."

Does that mean that baiting a mink trap with sardine oil etc is prohibited?

Grizzly 45

OTOH, you can say a mineral lick is you just being a good guardian of the animals and providing them with much-needed minerals post-calving and during the antler build during offseason when they need minerals.Although TBH I've tried both aniseed flavour and apple flavour and the only thing that enjoyed them were the local cattle and some feral goats![Or Irish Ibex!] Don't think Irish deer are that short of minerals to be really interested in the stuff.

Cass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118161383#Comment_118161383

Doubt it.

I'm not the NPWS guys, so its only an opinion.

There is no such thing as a vermin list in legislation. Only prohibited and protected species caled "Wild birds" or "Wild Animals". These relate to the hunting of such species, if permitted at all (hence the prohibited/fully protected ones that have no season), and everything else while a wild animal enjoys only "basic" cover such as basic animal rights. IOW the "season" for them is year round.

Mink fall into this category. So I'd say you would be fine with Mink.

Heavy handed

That outfitter is clearly a clown pushing what doesn’t exist here and to make it worse the boys coming over didn’t even do there homework and look into what there supposed to be hunting.