Posted 9/29/2004 07:11:00 PM by Douglas

In case any gun-nuts were looking for a reason to go to the Big Island of Hawaii, here's your written invitation.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is looking for volunteers with rifles to help rid the park's new 116,000 acres of thousands of feral sheep.

The National Park Service recently acquired the land on the Big Island from Kahuku Ranch. With the land came thousands of mouflon sheep, native to Corsica and Sardinia in the Mediterranean, that were brought to the ranch for hunting in the 1960s. Their population has multiplied over the years because they have no natural predators.

"Their grazing inhibits the regeneration of Hawaii's endemic plants, which are defenseless against sheep, goats and other chompers and stompers," the park service said in a news release.

The park service is required by law to control alien species that interfere with native species or habitats, park spokesman Jim Gale said.

The park service will conduct a public lottery Nov. 8 to select participants in the hunt, officials said. The project will continue indefinitely and lotteries will be held every six months, officials said.

There will be no limit on the number of sheep taken, and volunteers will be encouraged to keep the meat, the park service said.

"Chompers and stompers?" That sounds like a pretty good description of your average American tourist, actually. But other than that, why is it that I'm just now finding out about this? While looking at the "things to do on the Big Island" section of about a kazillion on-line vacation planners, I didn't see feral sheep hunt anywhere.

Looks like there's going to be some mutton at the luau this Christmas.