Winner pays $315K to hunt Kluane trophy sheep

A would-be hunter has offered to pay a steep price for an opportunity to bag a trophy Dall sheep from the Yukon's Kluane Wildlife Preserve.

The hunter, whose identity was not released, bid a whopping $315,000 US Tuesday at an auction of sheep hunting tags and permits held by the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep at a hunting expo in Salt Lake City, Utah.

For the past 30 years, the Wyoming-based foundation has auctioned off wild sheep-hunting permits from the Yukon, Alberta and elsewhere in North America.

The Kluane First Nation, which has Kluane Dall sheep on its territory, offered one sheep hunting tag for auction as part of its land claim agreements.

It offers one tag every year as a once-in-a-lifetime chance for hunters with enough cash to bag the prized trophy sheep, which are protected by hunting restrictions.

The Foundation for North American Wild Sheep keeps about 10 per cent of the purchase price, while the rest goes back to the First Nation, foundation president Ray Lee told CBC News.

"When the tags are sold, [the] money goes back to the Kluane primarily for wildlife conservation and social development projects with the Kluane," Lee said Tuesday.

Nearly record-setting bid

The winning bid, at $315,000 US, is about the same price many suburban homes go for in Whitehorse.

A similar permit sold last year for $180,000 US. In 2006, an Alaskan man paid $160,000 US for the chance to shoot a sheep in the Kluane Game Sanctuary, in what was the first such hunt allowed in 50 years.

But while this year's price may seem like a record-breaker, Lee said it doesn't set an all-time high.

"The Kluane tag, at $315,000, is the third-highest bid ever," he said. "Certainly for the Yukon and certainly for the Kluane, it is [setting] new records."

The highest-ever bid for a sheep-hunting permit was $405,000 for an Alberta permit, Lee said. Alberta also claims the second highest price tag ever paid, at $330,000.