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Email: timberwolfinfonetwork@gmail.com

ID: Trio of Aussie hunters banned from hunting in Idaho after surveillance ends in arrests

By KATY MOELLER

Three men who traveled to Idaho from Down Under last month to hunt deer, elk and wolf ended up in the crosshairs of Fish & Game officials.

The men were arrested on numerous violations, including taking a bull elk out of season and an improperly tagged wolf.

Anton Kapeller, 58, Darren Tubb, 43, and Samuel Henley, 18, all from Tasmania, Australia, spent almost a week in the Elmore County Jail.

Kapeller and Tubb were banned from ever again hunting in Idaho at a sentencing this week. Henley was banned for six years, according to Elmore County Deputy Prosecutor Lee Fisher.

The men also were sent home without their hunting rifles, which were seized by the court.

They trio was fined thousands of dollars each: Kappeller, $5,792; Tubb, $5,268; and Henley, $2,333.

Evin Oneale, a spokesman for Idaho Department of Fish & Game, said other hunters had flagged Fish & Game officials to suspicious activity by Kapeller in previous years. Officials had been trying to catch them for several years, but “it just never worked out,” Oneale said.

HUNTERS WERE UNDER SURVEILLANCE

Fish & Game officials observed the Aussie hunters shoot and kill a bull elk at about 5:56 p.m. on Oct. 28, according to court documents.

The hunting party shot the elk in the Black Warrior Creek drainage of Elmore County. That is in what’s designated as Unit 39, a vast area that includes portions of Elmore, Boise and Ada counties.

Elk hunting season in that unit didn’t start until Nov. 1 — so the elk was killed a few days before the official start of the season. Hunting seasons are designated to maintain sustainable wildlife populations, Oneal said.

For example, there’s no hunting in the spring, when babies are born.

“Same for summer,” Oneale said. “Animals on low elevation winter ranges are extremely vulnerable, so we don’t hunt then.”

What were Fish & Game officials doing in the Black Warrior Creek drainage before the elk hunting season started?

“We knew these guys were going to be here, so were able to send in a surveillance team to watch them,” Oneale said.

Rather than immediately arrest the hunters, Fish & Game officials decided to observe them for a while and meet them at the trailhead. The next morning, investigators saw two men, later identified as Tubb and Henley, walk to the dead elk’s location.

“Officer Flatter and I saw the same two men walking away from the dead elk’s location carrying backpacks that appeared to contain elk meet,” Conservation Officer Marshall Haynes wrote in an affidavit filed in court.

The officers then went to observe the elk carcass. They reported a rotten odor of wasted meat. The head and only one hind leg had been removed. They obtained a tissue sample for DNA comparison.

On Nov. 3, they contacted the hunters at the Little Queens trailhead. The men had the antlers and about 20 pounds of elk meat.

Tubb admitted to knowingly killing the bull elk during closed season. Investigators viewed the hunters’ photos and videos of their kill.

Investigators learned that Henly shot two wolves when the men were retrieving the elk antlers Nov. 2. Tubb tagged the second wolf with his tag — another violation.

In some states, transferring tags is legal and called “party hunting,” Oneale said.

He said Idahoans consider that unethical and not part of “fair chase.”

”Hunters in this state are only permitted to kill animals for which they have tags and during open season,” Oneale said.

BIG?NEWS DOWN UNDER

The plight of the Aussie hunters has been big news Down Under.

Two newspapers, including The Mercury (“The Voice of Tasmania”) and The Examiner (“First in Tasmania”) both covered the story from afar. One of them sent a New York City-based reporter to cover the sentencing in Mountain Home this week.

Fisher, the Elmore County deputy prosecutor, said he was surprised to see an Aussie reporter in the courtroom.

“What he told me is that they don’t have deer and elk in Australia,” Fisher said. “To them, deer and elk are exotic. He said, ‘We just have things that hop around.’ ”

The Mercury newspaper reported that Kapeller had a prior elk-poaching charge in Tasmania in 1990. The Tuesday article said Kapeller was charged with taking a deer using diazepam (valium). At that time, Kapeller operated a deer farm, according to The Mercury.

“He pleaded guilty to taking two wild fallow deer from Midlands properties and setting free two of his own farm stock in exchange,” the paper reported, saying Kapeller’s his intent was to improve the bloodline of his stock.

The Mercury also published an article speculating that it may have been “jealousy” by local Idaho hunters that had led to the arrests of the Aussies.

A friend of Kapeller’s told the paper that Kapeller is able to “hunt up high,” in the 7,000 to 8,000 feet range.

“Americans generally sleep at 3,000 to 4,000 feet so it means the Tasmanians have the advantage of height when the elk start to head up the mountain in the morning,” the man told The Mercury.

“He is generally more successful than locals and they may have got resentful,” the unidentified man said.

Oneale said that’s not likely.

“Looks like a friend trying to cover for his buddy,” he said.

Kapeller pleaded guilty to possession of an unlawfully taken elk (closed season); possession of an improperly tagged wolf; and aid in the take of a closed-season elk. He was also cited for litter and leaving an unattended camp fire.

Tubb pleaded guilty to taking a bull elk during closed season; wasting a bull elk and transferring a wolf tag to another. Henley was charged with attempting to take a closed-season elk and use of another’s wolf tag.

The total bond for the three men was $165,000. They forfeited $16,500.

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