Caribou

[GMac]

News for anyone heading East to caribou hunt in Newfoundland and Lab.
Herd went from 800,00 to 20,000. No more hunting in Newfoundland and Labrador for wine river herd for five years. Now if we get the Quebec Inuit on board with this as the herd migrates two provinces. We may be ok as our
native group has agreed to stop hunting. Only Lab so far for hunting ban
will we still have to see what the island conservation measures will be.

[Ryry4]

Very unfortunate to hear, but not a real surprise in my mind. Here's hoping they can get the population turned around.

[ThreeD]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2013/01/28/nl-labrador-caribou-tensions-128.html

George River herd.

[walking buffalo]

GMac,

Has there been any expression of what is the most likely cause for the population crash?

I am getting remarks from some researchers that in many areas across the tundra that predation may actually be the problem.

[riden]

So, are you anywhere near getting Quebec Inuit on side?

When I lived there there ignored all beluga quotas and didn't have any tag system for polar bears. I found they wanted to have completely Inuit solutions to everything, which made them almost impossible to work with.

[GMac]

There are many factors at play here. Environmental,predation, and hunting
As a hunter in Newfoundland our numbers are way down. As a young guy at
12 yrs old I never saw an caribou on the island west coast till 1979. One alone caribou in the back of Gros Morne National park. I travel alot of km on
snowmobile at this time. In 2003 around our Western NL cabin on an hour ride
I could count so high as 1000 then they started to die off. Now in the same
travel see about 50.

[GMac]

So, are you anywhere near getting Quebec Inuit on side?

When I lived there there ignored all beluga quotas and didn't have any tag system for polar bears. I found they wanted to have completely Inuit solutions to everything, which made them almost impossible to work with.

Still no word on this. Wait and see.

[TomE]

This is a clip of a NL "VOCM Open Line" Radio talk show..Doesn't sound like the Inuit are on side...
A link to the Telegram Story..

http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Local/2013-01-30/article-3166772/UPDATE%3A-Simms-apologizes-on-Open-Line-for-on-air-blowup-with-Chief/1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtyfwIydeTE

[L.O.S.T.Arrow]

GMac,

Has there been any expression of what is the most likely cause for the population crash?

I am getting remarks from some researchers that in many areas across the tundra that predation may actually be the problem.


:D After the dramatic decline in the NWT they thought it was hunting and predators...huge numbers perished...studies proved it was....the Mosquitoe...

True story...the warmer tempurtures blamed on the greenhouse effect made the mosquitoe numbers unbareable for the caribou and they would not feed proper and weakened....and surcum to bad weather and other factors..

Neil

[Ryry4]

:D After the dramatic decline in the NWT they thought it was hunting and predators...huge numbers perished...studies proved it was....the Mosquitoe...

True story...the warmer tempurtures blamed on the greenhouse effect made the mosquitoe numbers unbareable for the caribou and they would not feed proper and weakened....and surcum to bad weather and other factors..

Neil

Didn't they find a bunch of caribou that disappeared in the NWT in northern Saskatchewan?

http://www.caribouforever.com/2011/11/satellite-data-shows-missing-herd-moved-south/
http://www.canadaka.net/link.php?id=72736

[L.O.S.T.Arrow]

Didn't they find a bunch of caribou that disappeared in the NWT in northern Saskatchewan?

http://www.caribouforever.com/2011/11/satellite-data-shows-missing-herd-moved-south/
http://www.canadaka.net/link.php?id=72736

:D thumb up...good read...

But that was the Beverly Herd

The herd above Alberta I was speaking of is the Barren-Ground and Porcupine Caribou Herd that hail north of Alberta

Interesting stuff...thats one hunt i hope to enjoy again..

Neil

[airbornedeerhunter]

GMac,

Has there been any expression of what is the most likely cause for the population crash?

I am getting remarks from some researchers that in many areas across the tundra that predation may actually be the problem.

Overhunting by the Innu. Period. The prov gov in NL has been trying to get the Innu in Labrador to back off and leave the George river herd and the Red Wine herd alone for years now so they can try to make a comeback. The Innu have refused citing "traditional hunting rights" all the while using snowmobiles to chase the herd down and modern rifles instead of "traditional methods" like bows and arrows and spears. Traditional my ass. It's a complete farce. Randy Simms was right in chastizing that idiot Chief Simeon, then when Simeon realized Randy had a point and was right, he called him a racist. The Innu have already proven themselves incapable of managing federal money given to them, why would their handling of the caribou populations they rely on be any different. They'd shoot the last one and then blame the goverenment. The NL prov gov has it right, the hunt needs a moratorium until the herd recovers and the Innu can be educated on wildlife management.

[Tundra Monkey]

:D thumb up...good read...

But that was the Beverly Herd

The herd above Alberta I was speaking of is the Barren-Ground and Porcupine Caribou Herd that hail north of Alberta

Interesting stuff...thats one hunt i hope to enjoy again..

Neil

Hey Neil,

I've sat in on a few meetings over the last few years on this topic in the NWT and I can assure you that the killer "mosquito" has never been mentioned.

I sat through many a meetings that blamed "over hunting".....kinda strange cuz licensed hunter's only killed 227 the last year that we were allowed to hunt out of a 600K population (low end estimate).

It took several years to even have our ENR Department acknowledge predation as a "possible" cause. According to them our wolf population was in decline at the same time :sHa_sarcasticlol:

I've also never heard of the Barren-Ground herd. The Bathurst, Quaminariaq (sp??), Ahiak, Bluenose East, Bluenose West, Beverly, Dolphin Union yes....but never the Barren-Ground :confused:

I am familiar with the Porcupine herd. All of the herds that I named with the exception of the Dolphin Union herd (and they may be) are closer to Alberta than the Porcupine herd :confused:

In our case in the NWT there is a political agenda that is at play. Bad science was used to achieve a public perception that they wanted. Conspiracy theory.....maybe. It is disgusting what they are doing.

There are more caribou up here than deer in AB. Could you imagine if the AB Govt. cut all the Outfitter's tags to ZERO and then told the public that licensed hunting would also not be allowed? FN hunting can and will continue. People would SNAP!!!

I'm not up to speed on the herds in Quebec but what has been happening here leaves a sour taste in my mouth and I won't jump on the bandwagon of "there aren't any caribou left".

I'm with ya on waiting for the hunt to open again.....I dream about it all the time :cry:

[Arctic]

You got it, Monkey, the previous premier, when this first started, said it was a "political" item.

With a couple of million caribou supposedly "dead", how come no one has found at least one?

Governments say they don't know the cause, and after 10 years of one herd after the other "disappearing", no one yet has an answer or solution?

The first barren ground herd to "drop" was in Alaska, then the Yukon, then the NWT, then Quebec and Labrador, over a 10 year period. ...........If true, sounds like disease to me!! But no one is doing any tests, they all want to give it time, this means "natural cycle" from the '80's and '90's, when the caribou were at a 200 year high! ......guess we'll all have wait 200 years more to see the same populations!

Natives up here are meeting now on this subject, ...appears they want to blame mining and industry. .........Is there a string of new diamond mines across Arctic Canada that we haven't heard about? Only way that all herds are dropping.

Bottom line, and best I've heard from Governments, is that the herds can't withstand 22-25% harvest of cows and calves. .......Who's doing this, Non-aboriginals are limited to bulls only?

[fletcher]

The meeting in nwt is sponsored by mining companies and is for natives of affected areas although i sat in on some of it today. Basicly they are are just talking. Where did all the caribou die nobody could find them, somebody said. There was talk about dust from the mines, noiseand polution. Somebody said the young hunters are killing the migration leaders and not waiting for the followers as is supposedly traditional. I am at the site of an old hunt camp at courageous lake during the fall migration lots:-)of:-)caribou the last 3 years i think there was one bad year the year before but obviously they went somewhere else that year not sure about the bigger picture but it appears neither is the govt. Also talk about caribou collars it appears enr shares location of collared animals so natives can find them to hunt radio collars i guess