A slight drop in the population of the Nelchina caribou herd means hunters will be allowed to shoot only bulls this fall.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the change in a press release last week.

A harvest quota of 1,000 bulls has been set for the three Game Management Unit 13 Nelchina caribou hunts.

• A federal subsistence hunt restricted to federally qualified rural subsistence users;

• A state Tier I hunt for which 500 permits were issued;

• A community hunt administered by the Ahtna Native Corp. Hunters must live in one of eight Ahtna-represented villages to participate in the community harvest hunt. A harvest quota of 300 caribou has been established for the Ahtna community harvest hunt, leaving 700 animals to be split between the federal and state hunts.

In early July, Fish and Game counted approximately 33,000 caribou, down slightly from the 2007 count of 34,000 caribou and below the herd population objective of 35,000 to 40,000 caribou.

No count was conducted last year because of poor weather conditions, but female fall calf weights were low and pregnancy rates were below average for radio-collared caribou in May.