There are quite a few perks to having a dad who works for the Game and Fish Department. Like knowing where the best hunting holes are (Jon and I had both experienced a successful "big game" hunt by the 5th grade), gaining a true appreciation of the great outdoors and some pretty awesome encounters of the animal kind. My dad made sure Jon and I were exposed to animals of all shapes and sizes from a very young age. From playing with our snakes, to nursing a sparrow hawk and even sharing a truck with a mountain lion, we learned to have the utmost respect for our furry, feathery or even scaly friends and would never knowingly endanger them without a good non-hunting cause. With that said, two weeks ago we mugged antelope. And yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. :-)
The Game and Fish Department had an agreement with a Prescott Rancher to relocate a herd of antelope to different locations. So the three of us along with a bunch of other people all pitched in and spent a day wrestling, blindfolding, and ultimately relocating 80 poor little antelope.
While waiting for the antelope to be herded via helicopter into the corral where the "mugging" would take place Jon was very productive...
Here he found the truck's spotlight AND a brand new way to annoy/blind me simultaneously.
And here he is practicing the face he'll make when giving important orders over the radio.
Finally the helicopter successfully herded about 100 antelope and the mugging could begin!
Once the antelope had been herded into one side of the corral, the muggers went in and tackled about 8 antelope at a time while the rest of the antelope waited on the other side...it will make more sense once you watch the video at the end of the post!
Here are Jon and my dad pre-mugging...
I didn't participate in the first mugging so I was able to get this shot of one lucky antelope being released...
Be free!!
Jon and my dad carrying an antelope to the trailer...
One thing about antelope is they lose their hair when they are stressed. And I'm not talking about a little bit of hair, they lose a LOT of hair. Entire antelope carpets probably could have been mass produced with the amount of hair lost that day. Here are Jon and my dad post-mug trying unsuccessfully to shake off/spit out antelope hair. Fun times!
After my dad and Jon had done it a couple of times I manned up and mugged too. Here are some more pictures from the day...
Poor antelope...
They don't really have an idea of what's coming, they just know they probably won't enjoy it.
A typical Day Family photo...
Here is our Stop-playing-photographer-and-help-us-wrestle-the-ANTELOPE-dad look.
It was definitely an experience and it was such a fun day hanging out with my dad and Jon!!If my explanation of the "mugging" process sounded confusing, here is a video of us in action. :-)
