The state Department of Game and Fish said the auctions are an important fundraising tool and that the money is used for big game habitat and conservation.

A hunter from Washington bid $172,000 for a package of hunts—deer, elk, pronghorn, oryx and ibex—at the recent annual Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation National Convention in Reno. A second package sold for $145,000 to a hunter from California at the Mule Deer Foundation Convention in Salt Lake City.

In addition, a Tennessee hunter bid $90,000 for an elk license, a hunter from Illinois bid $90,000 for a bighorn sheep license and an Arizona hunter bid $71,000 for a mule deer license, the department said.

The special licenses and permits allow hunters to kill animals with any legal weapon during extended seasons on New Mexico public land or on private land with a landowner's permission.