Francis Harper

“ The Caribou dominates the thoughts, the speech, and the general human activities of the Barren Grounds. As the chief food resource of that region and the adjacent timbered country, it plays a highly important role in the economy of both primitive and civilized man. As long as those regions were occupied only by native Eskimos and Indians, employing such primitive weapons as bows and spears, the species was in no danger. Its vast numbers were maintained steadily from generation to generation, and were perhaps limited only by the grazing or browsing capacity of their range. ”

“ During the autumn migration of 1947 one of the Eskimos on the upper Kazan had killed 85 before the end of September. This band of Eskimos is said to have once slaughtered 500 animals, half of them in the river, where they did not even bother to pull them out; they had killed for the sheer delight of killing rather than for utilization. It is customary for them to spear more animals than they shoot. A trader’s family in the Nueltin Lake region used to kill 500 Caribou per year for their own use and for their 23 dogs. ”

“ The caribou’s greatest menace is not the wolf, nor the hunter, but man’s economic developments, principally the raising of reindeer. Wherever reindeer herds are introduced, caribou must of course disappear, for both cannot occupy the same range. The disappearance of the caribou along the Bering Sea and Arctic coasts, while regrettable, was unavoidable in view of the development of reindeer herding in this section, which is ideal for the purpose. ”

“ The Barren Ground Caribou comes close to holding the palm for unwariness among the larger land mammals of North America. It is fortunate that its range lies so far from the centers of civilization. It is scarcely conceivable that it could survive, as the White-tailed Deer does, in some of our most thickly settled areas. At the river crossings, where I watched the pageant of migration for day after day, some of the animals would come up to within a rod while I handled my cameras in the open, with no more cover than knee-high bushes and rocks (figs. 11, 14) . ”

“ The Barren Ground Caribou is a distinctly gregarious species. It goes in herds for at least the greater part of the year; this is especially true of the spring and autumn migration periods and of the winter months. We know comparatively little of the behavior of the does at fawning time in June; but probably there is a tendency toward solitariness on their part at that season. It is true that solitary Caribou may be met with at almost any season of the year; but this doubtless represents merely temporary rather than permanent segregation of such individuals. ”

“ If it had not been for the encroachment of civilization and the introduction of its instruments of destruction, the natives would have been assured of a proper meat supply for an indefinite period. Here and there some of them would miss a caribou migration and starve to death; yet the animals have been so generally available that many of the natives even today lack the foresight to put up an adequate supply of fish as an alternative winter food.
Almost everywhere the annual slaughter is both excessive and wasteful. ”

“ In the hard winter of 1944-45, when the Caribou were tired and hungry, Charles had the rare experience of driving his dogteam right through herds on Nueltin Lake; the animals merely moved aside enough to let him pass. In like vein Joe Chambers spoke of encountering such numbers of migrating Caribou on or near the “Little Barrens” south of Churchill in the spring of 1947 that his dogs “went wild” and he had to halt for a time; the animals came within about 100 yards of his team.
A Caribou bold enough to attack a man is very rarely heard of. ”

“ The threat of danger to a given individual in a herd of, say, 100,000 is practically negligible. From time immemorial the river crossings have represented a particular point of attack on the part of the natives. Yet when a large band of Caribou come to such a crossing, they may plunge in with little pause or hesitation. On the other hand, when a lone doe with her fawn approaches the river bank, she may be very circumspect, taking time to look carefully upstream and down, and across, before venturing into the water. ”

“ When the animals begin to enter the woods in August, there is no shortage of food; thus an insect-induced frenzy may possibly be regarded as a potent force driving them southward. In September a state of comparative peace descends upon the caribou world: the current crop of adult insects has subsided; the larvae of warble and nostril flies have not attained the formidable size of the following spring and perhaps are not yet causing any severe discomfort; little or no snow covers up the food supply; the lakes and rivers, still unfrozen, offer a ready way of escape from pursuing Wolves ”

“ It is virtually axiomatic that no predatory species (other than modern man) exterminates its own food supply. Long ago nature must have established a fairly definite ratio between the populations of the Wolf and the Caribou. Although a certain fluctuation of that ratio could be expected from time to time, each fluctuation would be followed by a return to more or less normal conditions. The trend of evolution has doubtless been toward perfecting the Wolf in its ability to capture the Caribou, but at the same time toward perfecting the Caribou in its ability to escape the Wolf. ”

“ No other member of this family could be expected to be so eminently and thoroughly adapted to its Arctic environment or to thrive so well on the very ground where nature has been molding and perfecting its characters for thousands of years. No naturally occurring relative—Moose, Deer, or Woodland Caribou—undertakes to compete with it on its own particular range. ”

“ In the winter the Caribou must depend primarily on its fleetness of foot. Even the fawns are reputed to be able to outdistance Wolves in a chase that is not too prolonged. An adult, if brought to bay after a long chase, is probably able to stand off a single Wolf indefinitely. Its powerful hoofs are its principal means of defense. Even if the antlers are brought into play, they are effective only during the limited period when they are fullgrown, hard, and free of velvet. When two or more Wolves manage to bring a Caribou to bay, the outcome is probably almost invariably in their favor. ”

“ The muscles that agitate the skin of the sides should be particularly well developed through frequent practice with water and flies during the warmer part of the year.
At the mouth of Little River, on August 30, I heard one of the Caribou in a large band “blow its nose,” so to speak, with vigor. The sound suggested that produced by a horse in vibrating its nostrils by forcefully expelling air through them. I suspect that the Caribou uses the same means, in an effort to fend off a nostril fly (Cephenemyia) bent on depositing its larvae. ”

“ It is said that the attachment between a doe and its fawn is such that when one of them is killed, the hunter can approach within 50 feet of the surviving doe or within 20 feet of the surviving fawn. A fawn is apt to linger for days in the vicinity where its dam has been killed.
Charles Schweder has never seen fawns playing with each other or with their mothers; two or three times he has seen one frisking by itself—such as jumping about or running in a circle—but never for more than half a minute at a time. Seriousness of life for a Caribou seems confirmed from its infancy. ”

“ At the very rear was a big, extra-dark buck, immediately preceded by a yearling barely half its size.
In crossing the bay ice, the animals traveled habitually in long files, one after the other, and yet not altogether in single file. In watching the endlessly interesting spectacle from camp, we could not always count the individuals exactly, for here and there a few would get abreast of others and be partly concealed. The general formation of each band was that of a much strung-out procession. For the most part the animals progressed at a moderate walking gait ”

“ Flies of various kinds perhaps cause more wide-spread, year-round misery to the Caribou than all other pests and enemies combined. It is safe to say that not a single individual in the whole population escapes their attacks, and some even succumb to mosquitoes (Gavin, 1945: 228) . The various biting and parasitic flies have already been discussed to some extent in the section on Influence of insects on distribution. Harassment by these pests is believed to be the leading cause of the haste with which the Caribou are frequently seen passing over the Barrens in summer. ”

“ In the spring migration of 1947 the last of the Caribou passed the Windy River area on July 1, just before the mosquitoes and black flies had become seriously troublesome. It might be surmised that the animals keep marching northward in advance of the appearance of these flies, as long as that is feasible; and that when fairly overwhelmed by the winged hordes, they desist from further progress in that direction. The fawns are born at such a time (in late May or June) as to pass their first few tender weeks before becoming subject to serious insect attacks. ”

“ Only the younger animals, from one to about four or five years old, are heavily infested; those still older are spared, possibly having learned to guard themselves better against the fly. Curiously enough, the fawns are said to escape this parasitism entirely.
My own observations on the larvae were restricted to a few Caribou specimens in June and in the autumn. As with the Reindeer, the Caribou fawns in their first autumn showed no visible infestation, as I noted in looking over some fresh hides on September 10, and as was noted again in a fawn of September 26. ”

“ Apparently the commonest method employed by the Caribou for indicating or communicating suspicion or alarm is erecting the stub of a tail to a vertical position. This brings its white under side into full view, as the silent flashing of a danger signal to other Caribou. However, a solitary animal will exhibit signaling behavior as well as one in a band. The tail remains erect, whether the animal stands to stare uneasily at a suspicious object or flees from it in alarm. The action is common to old and young of both sexes. ”

“ The Eskimos make odd use of an antler as a brake for a sleigh, to prevent the harnessed dogs from running after any Caribou they may sight; on other occasions it retards the sleigh in descending a hill. Such an antler, that I found at the Windy River post, is notched near the base; a rope or thong, 2 or 3 feet in length, is fastened at one end to this notch, and at the other to the side of the sleigh. To apply the brake, the driver simply presses down the points of the antler into the snow or ice. ”

“ Fish, which are available in abundance nearly everywhere, would serve well enough for both fox bait and dog feed. But the average trapper prefers to secure Caribou—a less laborious matter than putting up a winter’s supply of fish; at the same time he may admit that fish are easier to handle in feeding and are preferable from that point of view. Charles Schweder has rarely found Caribou along his trap-line between the upper Kazan River and Dubawnt Lake. ”

“ The weather has become severe; snow has covered up a large part of the ground lichens; tree lichens are not to be had. And so at this season, with the coming of the first heavy snows, there is a final movement out of the Barrens into the shelter of the woods, leaving only a minority of the animals to face a bleak and bitter winter in the open country. The biggest herds of the year may then be seen passing southward. A few bucks are said to remain during most winters in the Windy River area. ”

“ At the onset of this season, the bucks neglect their feeding to some extent; consequently those killed have stomachs only partly filled, instead of completely filled, as at other times. By mid-October their fat becomes tinted with reddish, and the whole flesh becomes so rank and musky that it is disdained not only by human beings but even by the Wolves. This condition seems to be considerably more pronounced in the Caribou than in the White-tailed Deer. The hunters forego eating the old bucks for a period of several weeks. Meanwhile the younger bucks, not engaged in mating, remain fit to eat. ”

“ There is undue reliance on a continuation of past abundance, and an indifference to the welfare or rights of posterity. The whole culture of the inland Eskimos and the northern Indians (the Caribou-eater Chipewyans in particular) is so thoroughly based upon Caribou that the decimation of these animals would mean a fundamental modification or virtual extermination of their culture.
The average trapper of the Barren Grounds apparently aims at killing annually at least 100 Caribou. Only a small portion is required to feed himself and his family. ”