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Hunter Compulsory Inspection

Last updated on February 13, 2024

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Hunters in B.C. must have certain game species inspected by a provincial inspector.

Species on Compulsory Inspection

The following species of game must be submitted to a compulsory inspection centre, within 30 days being killed:

  • Black bear on Haida Gwaii (management units 6-12 & 6-13)
  • Bobcat in Regions 4, 5 and 6 (all management units)
  • Caribou
  • Cougar
  • Elk in:
    • Regions 1 and 2 (all management units)
    • Management units 4-08, 4-09, 4-14 to 4-19, 4-27 to 4-33, 4-37, 4-38, 5-2, 6-4, 6-8 and 6-9
  • Lynx in Regions 4, 5 and 6 (all management units)
  • Moose in:
    • Regions 3 (spike-fork bull under the General Open Season only), 4 and 8 (all management units)
    • Management units 5-03 to 5-06, 5-10 to 5-14, 6-1 to 6-11, 6-15, 6-17 to 6-30 and the portion of 7-52 accessed through Region 6 (see Map H31)
  • Mountain goat
  • Mountain sheep

Compulsory inspected species must be submitted to an inspector within 30 days of the kill, with the following exceptions:

  • Mountain goat and mountain sheep must be submitted to a compulsory inspector within 30 days and before December 5 of the year of the kill, whichever occurs first
  • Persons who gain the written approval from a Wildlife Biologist, Wildlife Technician or Official prior to hunting can submit such animals for inspection within 30 days after the last day of the hunt
  • Persons who use the service of a licensed guide for the purpose of hunting a caribou or an elk in region 2 must submit such animals for inspection within 30 days after the last day of the hunt of the continuous season in which the animal was taken
  • Persons who use the services of a licensed guide for the purpose of hunting a mountain goat, or mountain sheep must submit such animals for inspection within 30 days after the last day of the continuous season in which the animal was taken, and by December 5 of the year of the kill, whichever occurs first
  • Persons who take a cougar in regions 4 or 6 must submit the animal for inspection, in the region where the cougar was killed, within 4 days after the date the cougar was killed

For information about trapping compulsory inspection requirements, please see the Trapping compulsory reporting and inspection page.

Information and parts required

Inspectors will only complete the inspection if all information and parts are submitted and able to be collected. Hunters are not in legal possession of the wildlife unless they comply with compulsory inspection requirements.

Information

The following information must be reported to a compulsory inspector for any species:

  • Location (including geographic coordinates) and date of the harvest
  • Hunter’s Fish and Wildlife ID, name, address and phone number
  • Animal class of the animal harvested
  • Licence number
  • Limited entry hunting authorization for the harvest animal (if applicable)
  • If guided, the guide outfitter's name and guide territory certificate number
  • Weapon type used for the kill
  • Number of days hunted before the animal was harvested

Parts

Hunters must submit unfrozen wildlife parts for the following species.

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Mountain sheep (Dall's, Stone's, California or Rocky Mountain)

  • the portion of the skull (preferably skinned) that includes, naturally attached to the skull, the nasal bones, the entire eye-socket, the horns, and the associated connective bone structure
  • for thinhorn sheep (Dalls’ and Stone’s) all the parts described above, plus an incisor tooth.

Note: The horns will have a numbered aluminum plug inserted by an officer.

 

Mountain goat

  • The horns
  • For males, a testicle or part of the penis
  • For females, a portion of the teats or mammary gland
 

Black bear, lynx, cougar and bobcat

  • The skull
  • The hide with the following attached:
    • For males, a testicle or portion of the penis
    • For females, a portion of the teats or mammary gland
 

Caribou

  • An incisor (front) tooth
  • Antlers
  • The hide with evidence of sex naturally attached for caribou without at least one main beam measuring over 60 cm (24 inches)
 

Elk and moose

  • An incisor (front) tooth
  • For males, the antlers naturally attached to a portion of the upper skull
  • For females, the upper portion of the skull or a portion of the teats of mammary gland.

 

Instructions on how to extract an incisor tooth from an animal:

Inspection stations

Find a compulsory inspector from regions listed below.

Compulsory inspection stations are open by appointment only.

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Region 1: Vancouver Island

For general information contact the Nanaimo Regional Office at, 250 751-7220.

Compulsory inspectors:

Bella Coola
Contact the Nanaimo Regional Office for instructions at 250 751-7220.

Campbell River
Shane Renouf
250 203-1638
Shanerenouf@telus.net

Shawnigan Lake
Rich Pearce
Southvancouverislandci@gmail.com (primary)
250 686-1615 (secondary)

Nanaimo
Maeve Winchester
Ministry of Forests
250 739-8316
maeve.winchester@gov.bc.ca 

 

Region 2: Lower Mainland

For general information, contact the Surrey Regional Office at, 604-586-4400.

Compulsory inspectors:

Eastern Lower Mainland
Jamie Reynolds
604-819-2016
High Caliber Custom Jet Boat - Contact Page

Western Lower Mainland
Maurice Jenkins
604-970-4449

Powell River
Contact FrontCounter BC Surrey Office
604-586-4400

Sechelt
Darryl Raynolds
604-885-7194

Squamish
Nathan Webb
604-815-9035

Sunshine Coast
No inspector at this time. Contact the Surrey Regional Office at, 604-586-4400.

 

Region 3: Thompson

For general information, contact the Kamloops Regional Office at, 250-371-6200.

Compulsory inspectors:

Kamloops (all species)
Chris Procter
250-312-6635

Alexandra Francis
778 362-7180

Kevin Watt
250-787-6102

Cayden Olstad
778-471-9513

Kamloops (all species except mountain sheep):
Norm Stackhouse
250-320-5947

Merritt (all species except mountain sheep):
Ray Wiens
778-241-0208

Salmon Arm (all species except mountain sheep):
Jason Bellows
250-832-0757

 

Region 4: Kootenay

For general information, contact the Cranbrook Regional Office at 250 489-8540 or the Nelson Sub-regional Office at 250 354-6333.

Compulsory inspectors:

Castlegar
Contact: Pasquale (Lino) Grifone
Telephone: 250 365-6327

Cranbrook
Bob Faiers
250 426-9653

Creston
Dustin Oakley
250 402-8132

Nakusp
James Henry Scown
250 265-4137

Radium Hot Springs
Kent Kebe
250 342-5601

Sparwood (all species except thinhorn sheep)
Chad Darren Bowen
catwelder@shaw.ca
250 433-6902

Trail
Josh Conci
250 231-5674

 

Region 5: Cariboo

For general information, contact the Williams Lake Regional Office at 250 398-4530 or 250 398-4345.

Compulsory Inspectors:

100 Mile House
Jerry Faulkner
604 845-4862

Alexis Creek (Moose only)
Alan Madley
250 394-4287

Bella Coola
Contact the Nanaimo Regional Office at, 250 751-7220.

Quesnel
Michael Pelchat
250 747-1599

Williams Lake

Courtney Jones
Courtney.N.Jones@gov.bc.ca
250 302-3554

Shane White
Shane.White@gov.bc.ca
250 302-4600

 

Region 6: Skeena

For general information, contact the Smithers Regional Office at, 250 847-7260, 250 643-7481 or Skeena.Wildlife@gov.bc.ca.

Compulsory inspectors:

Atlin
Jacquie Hanslit
250 651-2277

Burns Lake
Dominique Rutchka
d.rutchka@gmail.com
250 692-9393 (call or text)

Dease Lake
No current availability.  
Hunters that are not residents of the north are requested to conduct their inspection in another location.
Locals to Dease Lake area, may contact Skeena.Wildlife@gov.bc.ca to inquire on staff travelling through that may be able to support.

Haida Gwaii - for black bear harvested in MUs 6-12 and 6-13 only.
Village of Queen Charlotte
250 559-6200

Smithers
Glen Sikkes
glensikkes@hotmail.com
250 847-0401

Terrace
Paul Rusch
paul_rusch@msn.com
250 615-1101

 

Region 7A: Omineca

For general information, contact the Prince George Regional Office at 250 565-6135.

Compulsory inspectors:

Prince George
Ministry of Forests
250 614-7400

Vanderhoof
Ministry of Forests
250 567-6363

 

Region 7B: Peace

For general information, contact the Fort St. John Regional Office at 250 787-3411 or the Fort Nelson District Office at 250 774-5511.

Compulsory inspectors:

Fort St. John (by appointment only)
Beaton Building
Contact 250 787-3415 or 778 576-8819 for availability and bookings

Fort St. John
Myles and Thea Hanson
250 793-3922 or 250 793-3612

Fort Nelson (by appointment for available days only)
Contact 250 787-3415 or 778 576-8819 to book appointment for the following days:
August 21 to 25, 2023
September 18 to 22, 2023
October 23 to 27, 2023

 

Region 8: Okanagan

For general information, contact the Penticton Regional Office at 250 490-8200.

Compulsory inspectors:

Kelowna
Greg Hoyer
250 764-2482

Penticton
TJ Gooliaff
778 622-6843

Craig McLean
778 622-6842

Andrew Walker
778 622-6838

 

Compulsory Inspection reports

Hunters will receive a copy of their finalized Compulsory Inspection Report.  Starting in 2023, the report will be made available to the hunter through their Fish and Wildlife profile in WILD.

Compulsory Inspection database

The Compulsory Inspection database contains information that is collected during these inspections.

Compulsory Inspection records begin in 1900 and are presented at the management unit level. The species required to be inspected changes over time and varies by region, so not all species are represented in the dataset for the full period of record or for the entire province.

To access Compulsory Inspection data, see Hunting Data or DataBC.