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FAIRBANKS — Enough hunters have bagged Fortymile caribou off the Steese Highway that the Department of Fish and Game will close the hunt at midnight on Thursday.

“Hunters will likely reach the quota of 190 caribou by Thursday night,” biologist Jeff Gross at the Department of Fish and Game in Tok said.

The closure pertains to areas accessible off the Steese Highway and the end of Chena Hot Springs Road, he said.

There’s a good possibility the state will close the Fortymile caribou hunt off the Taylor Highway soon, too, Gross said.

“The Taylor Highway hunt could close at any time,” he warned.

The fall Fortymile caribou hunt is divided into three different hunts with three different harvest quotas that add up to 640 animals.

The Steese Highway hunt has a quota of 190 caribou, the Taylor Highway hunt has a quota of 290 caribou and a third area inaccessible by road has a quota of 160 caribou.

Based on harvest reports and field observations at check stations on both roads, Gross said hunters on the Steese Highway had bagged more than 100 caribou as of Wednesday morning and hunters on the Taylor Highway were at around 140 caribou, though Gross figured both totals to be higher because successful hunters have three days to report their kill.

If the success rate for hunters on the Taylor Highway continues at the current rate, that hunt will likely close within a few days, too, Gross said.

Though there wasn’t a high concentration of caribou along either road, there were enough animals and hunters to provide for what Gross described as a “slow but steady harvest.”

“There were a lot of caribou that looked like they were going to be available to hunters on the Taylor Highway and they turned the other way,” Gross said.

The herd, which numbers approximately 39,000 animals, is currently spread from the Canadian border to Eagle Summit, he said.

“There isn’t any kind of specific movement of the herd,” Gross said. “They’re just kind of scattered.”

Gross advised hunters to check the Fortymile caribou hotline at 267-2310 before venturing into the field.

Contact staff writer Tim Mowry at 459-7587.