First Report on Reopened Hunting For Chartreuse Chamois in France

Chartreuse chamois is a subspecies of chamois found only in the Chartreuse Massif of France, where it has been unavailable to international hunters for some years. Now Hunting Report subscriber Rex Baker says he is the first American hunter to take a Chartreuse and submit it for entry in the SCI record book. "If you count the New Zealand chamois separately," Baker writes, "there are 11 species of chamois. Only eight species were huntable until about three years ago when Grand Slam Club/OVIS made the Tatra or Low Tatra chamois from Slovakia a record-book animal. Number 10, the endangered Apennine chamois from northern Italy, is not huntable. "The 11th, the Chartreuse chamois, has long been recognized as a separate sub-species and only recently became huntable. It exists only on the Chartreuse Massif, a stand-alone mountain range about 40 miles to the west of the Alps near Grenoble, France." Baker traveled to France this past December to hunt two varieties of chamois there  Alpine and Chartreuse. He hunted with Dr. Vincent Lacoste for both animals. (Editor note: See postscript.) Baker describes Lacoste as "an avid bowhunter who guides because he loves to hunt." According to Baker, his Alpine chamois hunt (December 7-10, 2011) was pretty straightforward. He stayed at the Mount Ventoux ski resort in the Provence region of southern France (the mountain is a famous stage of the Tour de France bike race). In his report, (ID 8539) Baker describes this as "an excellent hunt with very nice people, great food, in beautiful country at a very reasonable price." He reports paying $420 per day for transport and $750 per day for hunting for a total cost of $4,680. He reports seeing lots of chamois and taking a very nice trophy (26 3/8 SCI) on the second day of the hunt. In a follow-up phone call, Baker gave more details on this hunt: "We were able to take a vehicle to gain most of the altitude, and then side-hilled out about three miles on a hiking trail, stopping to glass slides where the chamois were feeding. They are typically found at about........(continued)