Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The Jackalope.

On my way down to Sioux City I stopped at a truckstop called "Jumping Jacks" in Belle Fourche..South Dakota. The menu as in a few other truckstops is like a newspaper which not only shows the food menu but has a bit of advertising and local trivia.
I had heard about Jackelopes before but the article gave me a lot more insight. A cross between a jack rabbit and an antelope the Jackalope is extremely rare and even while I was enjoying my lunch 3 old men who sat drinking coffee laughed and ridiculed the other old gentleman in there group who said he seen one about 30 years ago.
Licenses are required to hunt the Jackalope and are issued by a lottery basis however one place to issue the license on a first come first served basis is The Douglas Wyoming Chamber of Commerce.
The terms of hunting must be strictly adhered to. A license allows the holder to take only 2 Jackelope in the season, a male and a female. The Buck must be taken first and then a Doe. Only traditional methods of hunting are allowed and the only means of capturing a Jackalope is by lasso'ing the hind legs; once caught the animal must be killed as quickly and humanely as possible.
As in my last post I stopped at Walldrug and was able if I so wished to purchase a mounted Jackalope as shown in the pictures. The pictures of animals that are alive are taken from the web.
Numerous sites are dedicated to the Jackalope along with details of festivals, sightings and hunts.
The 2 pics below are taken at Walldrug and the Jackalope are available for purchase




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Phil,

You were a day early mate!

Bert Bucket.

Montedarlo said...

Hi Bert, yeah I realised when I submitted the post.It will of been early morning in the UK when I posted about the Jackalope so anyone reading there will of done so on April 1st.

Maybe next year will be more successful.

Cheers and thanks for commenting.

Phil