When Drew Morris of Fairbanks finally got his permit to hunt bison in Delta Junction last year after applying for a decade, he became more popular on social media than he'd ever been. It also got him cussed out in a Fairbanks bar by a couple of gruff Alaskan hunters.
"I put it on Facebook that I got the permit and it got more likes than anything I ever put up," Morris said. "I got two friend requests from people I didn't really know asking if they could come with me on the hunt. I had old-timers at the bar actually get pretty mad and say, 'You (expletive), that permit should have been mine.' "
The Delta Junction bison hunt is Alaska's most-sought. Some 23,696 people spent $10 apiece applying for the upcoming season, set to run Oct. 1-March 31. The odds of getting a permit are less than 1 percent, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game management coordinator Doreen Parker McNeil.
Alaska's next most-popular hunt is for caribou near the Parks and Denali highways in Game Management Unit 13. That hunt had about half as many applicants as the bison hunt last year, but about 300 permits were handed out -- three times as many as for Delta bison.
900 plains bison statewide
Alaska's plains bison population has greatly expanded since the first 23 were moved to the 49th state from Montana in the late 1920s. Fish and Game estimates that the four Alaska herds total about 900 bison, with the largest population in the Delta area. The plains bison population is distinct from the recently re-established wood bison population that was released near Shageluk this summer after spending time at Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage.
Described by Fish and Game area wildlife biologist Darren Bruning as "living snowplows," bison use their massive heads to sweep away snow to find food buried below. With their heavy coats, the robust creatures are built for harsh climes like the one found in the Interior.
Each year, the number of permits Fish and Game gives out for the bison hunt varies slightly depending on the health of the herd. This year, 100 permits were distributed: 50 for cows and 50 for bulls.
The drawing is open to residents and nonresidents, although on average far fewer nonresidents win a permit. Everyone has the same odds; Delta-area residents don't have priority. And unlike some lottery systems, such as the annual Mount Marathon Fourth of July race in Seward, an applicant doesn't get additional weight in the draw the more years they apply.
"The bison hunt permit is kind of frustrating for people," Parker McNeil said. "If you live in the area and you see the bison a lot, they're on your mind. It's frustrating to have a wonderful hunt in your backyard and not be able to participate. And you might put in for it every year for 30 years and not get it. Your odds don't really change from year to year."
Only 80 permits were handed out last year for the Delta bison hunt. Although fewer than this year, last year's permits weren't sex-specific, as they are this season. Morris said having a gender nonspecific hunt made his hunt a little easier because he didn't have to try and figure out the gender of his target, which can slow down the process.
Three days into his late-November 2014 hunt, Morris spotted a 700-pound cow -- relatively small for cows that can weigh up to 1,200 pounds. For a moment, Morris lost sight of the bison, but when the animal reappeared, he pulled the trigger.
"I'm not a trophy hunter," Morris said. "I'm a meat hunter. It was not a big bison. I was lucky that it was (an) either sex (hunt) last year because it's not always easy to tell. I knew I wanted to take the first bison I got a good shot at."
Using a come-along, Morris yanked the cow into the bed of his pickup truck and drove 95 miles back to Fairbanks, where he works as a mechanical contractor.
'By far the tastiest animal'
Morris hung the bison in his garage. He took everything he could and saved the organs as a special treat for his daughter.
"I gave the heart to my daughter," Morris said. "She loves nothing more than the heart, so I fed it to her."
Morris estimated he processed about 400 pounds of bison meat, which he turned into steaks, sausages and ground meat.
"It was by far the tastiest animal I ever ate."
The quality and quantity of meat is one of the main reasons Parker McNeil suspects the Delta bison hunt is so popular. The fact the hunt area is accessible by road contributes to its popularity.
Bruning, the biologist, has a different idea: He thinks interest in the bison hunt is due to the animals' American symbolism.
"Bison are tied to the adventurous frontier settlements of this country," Bruning said. "They're in images of the Old West and North America.
"A young person may not have a direct tie to the Old West, but someone in their life -- a parent or a grandparent -- probably did at one point have those exciting thoughts and images of what the West was. Maybe it's just the tales of old mountain men (or) interest in the settlement of our country. But bison are a symbol of that." An estimated 20 million to 30 million bison once roamed North America before unregulated shooting and habitat loss nearly wiped them out.
Whatever the reason, an interest in hunting a bison deep in Alaska's Interior is much greater than any other Alaska hunt.
"The bison hunt was once in a lifetime," Morris said.
Morris is eligible to reapply for another permit after 10 years, but for Outside hunters it really is once in a lifetime. Once a nonresident gets a permit to hunt bison in Delta Junction, they can never reapply.
But there are plenty of hunting options in Alaska with far less competition. So-called "unsubscribed hunts" have more permits available than applications. For the 2015-2016 hunting seasons, those hunts include black and brown bear hunts, as well as a moose hunt, in remote regions far off the road system, such as areas near Wrangell and Juneau in Southeast, areas near Norton Bay in northwest Alaska, and in the Arctic. In America's largest state, at 663,300 square miles, perhaps that's inevitable.