Rancho Buena Vista says it has permission from Semarnat; includes transportation in a Cessna plane and accommodation for five nights
The Buena Vista hunting ranch where the sport hunting of a bison was carried out in the first days of January has two registries with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), as Management Units for the Conservation of Wildlife (UMAs) in the category of extensive, that is to say, that the animals are in free life.
The following authorizations are found in the Semarnat database: Buena Vista SEMARNAT-CR-EX0105-COA , in the municipality of Ocampo and Buena Vista SEMARNAT-UMA-EX-0065-COA , in the municipality of Múzquiz.
The Buena Vista ranch that is located in Ocampo, Coahuila within the Sierra del Carmen has more than 25 thousand hectares of extension and charges 7,500 dollars, around 153 thousand pesos, for hunting the bison, which includes transportation in a plane Cessna and lodging for five nights.
The activity that takes place once or twice a year between the months of December and February, can be done on foot or on horseback, using Magnum rifles or bow and arrow.
According to the UMA website, the hunt is carried out in the low grasslands where old specimens are usually found.
“Bison of reproductive age cannot be hunted,” he says.
According to the Buena Vista ranch owners, the specimens found on their property are of a species introduced decades ago, genetically modified to acclimatize to the region and that have remained there since the 1960s.
In social networks, the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (Conanp), assured that the two pure herds of American bison, reintroduced between 2019 and 2020 to repopulate the plains of Coahuila, are safe and sound, under rigorous surveillance.
“The bison that were introduced in 2019, as part of the second conservation herd in Mexico, come from a genetically pure line and are protected in the Maderas del Carmen and Ocampo Natural Areas, Coahuila,” he stressed.
PROHIBITED ANIMALS
Species in some risk category, such as bison that are in danger of extinction, according to the Official Mexican Standard 059 , can be commercially exploited.
Animals not allowed for sport hunting are expressly indicated in Article 60 of the General Wildlife Law: monkeys, parrots, sea turtles and marine mammals.
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR SPORTS HUNTING ARE:
That the hunter has a hunting license (nationals) or a service contract (foreigners); the UMA is registered with Semarnat; The UMA has authorization to use it and the UMA has acquired the collection tickets with Semarnat.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT BISON HUNTING IN COAHUILA AND THE BUENA VISTA RANCH
After images of the hunting of bison were made viral in a hunting club in Coahuila , Semarnat announced that it will investigate the case.
Just a few days ago, the same agency shared photographs of the herds of bison reintroduced to the Janos Biosphere Reserve , which includes Chihuahua and Coahuila.
For this reason, it will be investigated whether the photos in which two men were seen in front of the body of a bison correspond to any of the animals in the herds.
The images were published on the social networks of Rancho Buena Vista , in Coahuila , a hunting club in the north of the country that shortly after closed its Facebook and Instagram accounts .
Today, around noon, the club also took down its official page .
SEMARNAT WILL INVESTIGATE ALLEGED HUNTING OF BISON IN COAHUILA
After the photographs were released, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources ( Semarnat ), the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection ( Profepa ) and the government of Coahuila announced that they will investigate the origin of the photographs.
The Semarnat reported that no address dependency has authorized the use hunting of bison to the Rancho Buena Vista in Coahuila .
” There are no reports on approved management plans and uses for the species granted to a ranch in Coahuila with the name Buena Vista, or with the characteristics shown in the photos exhibited,” says the secretariat in a statement.
The federal government also said that if it is proven that the hunt was illegal, those responsible will be punished.
WHAT’S UP WITH THE BUENA VISTA RANCH?
To begin with, we must clarify that a hunting club is a hunting club that must have permits from federal authorities, both to operate weapons and to hunt protected species.
They are called Management Units for the Conservation of Wildlife and on their properties they have animals that live in freedom.
That said, Rancho Buena Vista is a club in Coahuila located about 150 miles southwest of Piedras Negras.
On their official website , which was disabled today, they explained that when buying a package to do sport hunting on their land, they offer round-trip ground and air transportation services.
Among the services it offers, hunting the American bison has the highest price: 7,000 dollars ; others such as mule deer (also known as mule deer ) cost $ 4,950.
Hunt also offers white – tailed deer , boar wild , mountain lion , coyote , among other species.
We tried to contact the person responsible by phone who appears as the contact of the hunting club, but there was no response .
While in its statement, Semarnat assures that there is no documentation that supports the controlled hunting of the species, the ranch’s page showed photographs of clients next to the bodies of bison and we were able to corroborate that the images dated from the beginning of 2019 .
“ Rancho Buena Vista offers 1-2 outdoor bison hunts per year, ” said the official site of the place. “The hunt is carried out in the low grasslands where old bulls are usually found grazing.”
In addition, it clarified that the young bulls that help reproduction cannot be hunted and that the reproduction season of the species is between August and September, but that it is best to hunt in winter, between December and February.
Source: animal.mx, sinembargo.mx,