Shipe hunting

The game warden station in Medicine Bow has been in existence since 1953 according to Rob Shipe, the new game warden for the area.

"My district goes along US 30 to Fetterman Road towards Rock River and then I sort of follow the county line to west and quite a lot of my area is public land," Shipe said. "My area includes Shirley Basin, which is a major area for wildlife."

He said his territory covers a lot of the new wind farms that are being built.

"They are cutting new roads and it is changing the landscape a little bit, and anywhere you put in development like this, there will be impact," Shipe said. "I have only been here a few months and have only seen that land with wind farms, but I have to say this town has been bustling."

Currently, he is going on routes checking out antelope before hunting season starts. He said that the routes are the same done every year for consistency sake.

"This way we can see any changes versus me looking for hot spots of antelope," Shipe said. "So literally, I am out counting antelope all day."

He said the antelope are not hard to count because the herds are not wary yet.

"They definitely know the difference when hunting season starts," Shipe laughed. "There is no question about that."

He said the nearest relative is the giraffe and the reason they are so fast is due to a predator that does not exist in North America today.

"I don't know how many thousands of years ago, but there was a species of North American cheetah that obviously fed on the antelope," Shipe said. "So the antelope would get faster and then the cheetah would get faster and then the antelope would get faster and so on and so on until you had this very fast creature related to the giraffe. Eventually the cheetah died out, but the antelope had become so fast that most predators couldn't catch them."

Shipe has been at Medicine Bow for three months, but he has worked for Wyoming Game and Fish since 2014. He has always known since his school days he wanted a job that would have him outdoors.

He was raised in Michigan in a small town about an hour outside of Detroit. Shipe graduated from Oakland University with a degree in biology.

"I studied biology because I thought it would make me a better fisherman," Shipe said. Then he laughed, "It did not make me a better fisherman."

He didn't always see himself as a game warden, but now that he is, Shipe doesn't see any other job that fits his personality so well.

"Since it is just me, I am out in field all the time and I love it," Shipe said. "I get to see things that I never would imagine. Coming from the midwest, I never thought I would ever see a wildfire in my life, but a couple weeks ago I was out at the Pathfinder fire watching planes dumping water to put the blaze out."

When he left college, he knew he wanted to work in the Rocky Mountain area but didn't think he would find a job. He was wrong.

Shipe was hired by Wyoming Game and Fish to work in Green River at check stations for boats coming in from other states.

"In college, that is one the things I studied; aquatic invasive species," Shipe said. "These creatures can be a huge infrastructure problem because they can blow up wherever it gets wet. We are talking hydro and irrigation where these waterways can get blocked up."

Aquatic invasive species (AIS) are non-native organisms that can cause significant harm to an ecosystem when introduced. Aquatic invasive species, like zebra and quagga mussels, are small organisms that could have huge impacts for Wyoming's waters, boaters, and anglers.

Shipe pointed out the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's AIS program wants to remind everyone that any boat, jet ski and other watercraft coming into the state of Wyoming is required to be inspected before launching on any water in the state until after Nov. 30.

Boaters must have inspections at regional offices or inspection stations through Nov. 30 when launching in Wyoming. This requirement is extended year round if the watercraft was last used in any water infested with zebra and or quagga mussels. Besides hydro and irrigation, these species can ruin fisheries, clog cooling systems in motorboats, foul hulls, and ruin equipment. Anyone who uses water or recreates on water will be impacted.

He said an owner should clean, drain, and dry the watercraft after every use.

Shipe left Green River after two years as a regional game warden and moved to Lander where he was a regional game warden there. Coming to Medicine Bow, he is the district game warden.

"I am in charge of the whole district, whereas when I was regional, I went wherever they needed me to go in the district," Shipe explained.

Hunting season has already started in his district for cow elk and Shipe is gearing up for more animals to start being able to be hunted.

Although there are regulations concerning when and how mule deer can be hunted, white tail has much less restrictions. He explained white tail should not really be coming into this range because it is dominated by mule deer. But due to white tail being so prolific, they are making their way into mule deer habitat. He said there is even some hybrids coming out of the two mixing in the area.

He has never seen one, but know they exist. Shipe said the way you can tell for sure if the deer is a hybrid, is the tarsal gland. On a mule deer the gland which runs down the back leg is four to six inches long, a white tail is two to four inches long and a hybrid is three to four inches.

His district is one that has the longest hunting season in the state. It starts Aug. 15 and goes until the end of January

"There are a few other districts that stay as long as I do," Shipe said. "But the real nitty gritty starts in October"

Shipe said, although he has not been in Medicine Bow long, the most unusual thing he has seen was a black bear going through town.

"It wasn't really a big deal, because he just wandered through town and left," Shipe said. "But it was interesting to see a bear wandering through sage brush."

Shipe said he enjoys the diversity of the landscape in his district.

"I have high desert and mountains meeting," Shipe said. "I have black footed ferrets and swift foxes in my district and I find myself learning new things all the time. For instance, black footed ferrets are nocturnal. They are active at night."

Shipe said that was the beauty of his job.

"I am always learning and seeing things that are fantastic, at least to me," Shipe concluded to me. "Its why I wanted to live here in Wyoming."