If you like hunting, and big game is your thing, you might consider a real challenge and try for that mounted Tyrannosaurus Rex head on your wall. Before you load your gun and put on your camouflage hunting gear, be sure that you perform all of the legal requirements. At the top of the list is making sure you have a valid hunting license.

The best place to obtain legal permission to hunt these seemingly-extinct creatures is at Vernal, Utah.

Vernal authorities have been issuing dinosaur hunting licenses since 1951, sometimes at the rate of 60,000 per year. Each license is signed by the Deputy Lizard Warden. Presumably the Chief Lizard Warden is too busy responding to complaints of velociraptors in the rose bushes.

While official reports tell us that dinosaurs have been extinct for 65 million years, residents of Vernal believe otherwise. The Salt Lake Tribune on July 13, 1952 reported, “Old-time Vernal residents say, with a glint in their eyes, that on moonlight nights when the wind just whispers over the desert, dinosaurs still roam on the outskirts of the town.”

With this in mind, officials have placed a strict limit on the number of dinosaurs that can be legally bagged:

A. TYRANNOSAURUS REX — 1 only (adult male).
B. DIPLODOCUS GIGANTICUS — 1 only (either sex) and not less than 5000 pounds live weight.
C. STEGOSAURS — 2 only (males) any size.
D. PTERODACTYLI — 4 only (without young).