The Barren Ground Caribou of Keewatin Part 1

The Barren Ground Caribou of Keewatin.

by Francis Harper.

INTRODUCTION

No other large North American land mammal is of such primary importance as the Barren Ground Caribou (_Rangifer arcticus arcticus_) as a source of food and clothing for so many primitive Eskimo and Indian tribes; no other performs such extensive and spectacular migrations; no other may be seen in such vast herds; no other exhibits so close an approach to a Garden-of-Eden trustfulness in the presence of man. And perhaps no other is more worthy of being cherished and safeguarded in its natural haunts for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations.

The original valid designation, in technical nomenclature, of the Barren Ground Caribou of the Mackenzie-Keewatin region dates back to 1829, when Sir John Richardson described it in the _Fauna Boreali-Americana_ as _Cervus tarandus_ var. _arctica_. The type locality is Fort Enterprise (about lat. 64 30' N., long. 113 W.), on Winter Lake, an expansion of Snare River, Mackenzie. Since the typical subspecies appears to lack a distinguis.h.i.+ng common name, it would seem fitting to a.s.sociate with it the name of its worthy describer; thus, Richardson's Barren Ground Caribou. The author's intimate acquaintance with the animal should have enabled him to draw up a somewhat fuller and more adequate description than he did. Previous travelers in the Barren Grounds, among whom Samuel Hearne (1795) was particularly notable, had contributed accounts of the species, without differentiating it from the Lapland Reindeer (_Rangifer tarandus_) or without giving it a distinctive technical name.

Since Richardson's time the mainland form of western Canada has been discussed by many zoologists and explorers. The most comprehensive account of its life history hitherto published is that by Seton (1929, +3+: 95-135),[1] whose personal experience was gained in the region of Artillery, Clinton-Colden, and Aylmer lakes. Dearth of adequate material (particularly from the type locality or adjacent areas) makes it all but impossible to determine whether there is any significant geographical variation between the herds of central Mackenzie and those of Keewatin.

[Footnote 1: This statement, written long before the appearance of Banfield's work of 1954, no longer applies.]

The foremost objective of an expedition I made in 1947 to Nueltin Lake, in southwestern Keewatin, was a study of the Barren Ground Caribou. The expedition was supported by the Arctic Inst.i.tute of North America, with funds supplied by the Office of Naval Research. My headquarters were at the little Windy River trading post, at the northwestern extremity of Nueltin Lake (map 1). There, for a period of six months, I enjoyed the fine hospitality of Charles Schweder and Fred Schweder, Jr. They had lived on intimate terms with the Caribou during most of their youthful lives, and they freely shared with me the knowledge they had thus gained concerning the ways of life of these wonderful creatures. They secured nearly all the specimens that went into my collection. The three other residents of the post also deserve my grat.i.tude for their general helpfulness and friendliness; they were 10-year-old Mike Schweder (brother of Charles and Fred), 15-year-old Anoteelik (an Eskimo boy), and the latter's sister, 5-year-old Rita.

In a previous paper (1953) I have endeavored to express to various officials and friends my sincere appreciation of their courtesy and generosity in furthering the work of the expedition; and I can scarcely forbear to repeat here the names of at least a few of them: Dr. A. L.

Washburn, at that time executive director of the Arctic Inst.i.tute of North America; Mr. R. A. Gibson, deputy commissioner of the Administration of the Northwest Territories; and Mr. G. W. Malaher, director of the Game and Fisheries Branch, Manitoba. For the loan of a motion-picture camera, which secured for me some extremely gratifying scenes of the migrant hosts on the Barrens, I am greatly indebted to Mr.

William C. Morrow. Dr. Ralph S. Palmer has kindly read, and made helpful comments upon, a preliminary draft of the present report.

Through the courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History, the United States National Museum, and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, I have been able to examine important comparative material in their collections.

A grant from the National Science Foundation has enabled me to carry the investigation through to completion.

MIGRATIONS

The Barren Ground Caribou is the outstanding migratory land mammal of North America at the present day. (Some of the bats, though extensively migratory, obviously belong in a category too distinct for comparison.) We know as yet extremely little concerning the movements of individual Caribou;[2] but it is fairly safe to a.s.sume that among those reaching the southern limits of the winter range in central Manitoba or northwestern Ontario, there must be many whose summer range is at least 500 or 600 miles to the northward. The lat.i.tudinal extent of such wanderings is comparable with, or equivalent to, an annual round trip between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Charleston, South Carolina.

There is perhaps less information available concerning the migrations of the wild Reindeer of the Old World than concerning the movements of the Barren Ground Caribou of North America (_cf._ Jacobi, 1931: 191-200).

[Footnote 2: One means of gathering information on this subject would be to capture fawns as they swim across lakes or wide rivers on the autumn migration, then to affix numbered metal tags to their ears and to release them in time to rejoin their mothers.

This would simply be a modification of the leg-banding method that has proved so highly successful in the study of bird migration. It would also be particularly useful in studies on age and growth.]

_Southern limits of winter range_

In years long past the winter range extended at least occasionally as far south as Fort McMurray in Alberta and Cree Lake and the upper Mudjatick and Foster rivers in Saskatchewan, and rather regularly to Reindeer Lake (Preble, 1908: 137); and "on rare occasions as far south as c.u.mberland House on the Saskatchewan River" (Buchanan, 1920: 105). At an early date Richardson believed (1829: 243) that "none" of these Caribou "go to the southward of Churchill."

There are, however, records of long ago that deal with ma.s.s occurrences of Caribou on the lower courses of the Nelson, Hayes, and Severn rivers, emptying on the west coast of Hudson Bay. The records are very puzzling in several respects. Most of them do not definitely differentiate the species involved from the Barren Ground Caribou, but some of them (by Hearne, Richardson, and Preble) indicate that it is the Woodland Caribou. The direction of the migrations, as reported in some instances, is just the reverse of that taken at the present time by the Barren Ground species during its normal movements at corresponding seasons.

Finally, it is all but impossible to reconcile the numbers reported with such knowledge as we have of the status of the Woodland Caribou at any other period or in any other region.

Perhaps the earliest account is by Dobbs (1744: 22):

"They [residents at Fort Bourbon-York Factory] also take great numbers of Cariboux or Rain-Deer [sp.?]. In _March_ and _April_ they come from the North to the South, and extend then along the River 60 Leagues; they go again Northward in _July_ and _August_; the Roads they make in the Snow are as well padded, and cross each other as often as the Streets in Paris."

In discussing the "Indian deer" or Woodland Caribou in the vicinity of Great Slave Lake, Hearne remarks (1795: 225): "This is that species of deer which are found so plentiful near York Fort and Severn River."

According to Thompson (1916: 100-101), an immense herd of "Rein Deer"

[sp.?], estimated at the rather preposterous figure of 3,564,000 individuals, crossed the Hayes River 20 miles above York Factory in late May, 1792. The direction of this migration is not indicated.

Richardson writes ("1825": 330) of the Woodland Caribou: "In the beginning of September, vast numbers of this kind of deer pa.s.s near York Factory . . . on their journey towards the north-west."

And again (1829: 250):

"They cross the Nelson and Severn Rivers in immense herds in the month of May, pa.s.s the summer on the low, marshy sh.o.r.es of James' Bay, and return to the northward, and at the same time retire more inland in the month of September. . . . I have been informed by several of the residents at York Factory that the herds are sometimes so large as to require several hours to cross the river in a crowded phalanx."

The implication is that the herds pa.s.sed _southward_ in May. It should be borne in mind that these were apparently not personal observations of Richardson's; and in his belief that the Barren Ground species did not go south of Churchill, he may have merely a.s.sumed that the animals in the York Factory region were the Woodland species.

"Near York Factory, in 1831, this propensity [Indian destructiveness]

. . . led to the indiscriminate destruction of a countless herd of reindeer [sp.?], while crossing the broad stream of Haye's River, in the height of summer. . . . The deer have never since visited that part of the country in similar numbers." (Simpson, 1843: 76).

Referring to the York Factory region in 1837, John McLean writes (1932 [1849]: 195). "Not many years ago this part of the country was periodically visited by immense herds of rein-deer; at present there is scarcely one to be found."

A later account of Richardson's (1852: 290) is somewhat ambiguous as to the species to which it refers:

"The reindeer that visit Hudson's Bay travel southward toward James's Bay in spring. In the year 1833, vast numbers of them were killed by the Cree Indians at a noted pa.s.s three or four days march above York Factory. They were on their return northward, and were crossing Hayes River in incredible mult.i.tudes."

Pike writes (1917 [1892]: 50) that "within the last three years [_i.e._, about 1888] the [Barren Ground?] caribou have appeared in their thousands at York Factory . . . where they have not been seen for over thirty years."

Preble (1902: 41) quotes Dr. Alexander Milne as thinking, after 14 years' residence at York Factory, that the small bands of "Woodland Caribou," found between Churchill and Cape Churchill, form the "northern fringe of the bands which migrate to the coast in spring, the great majority of which in their journey cross to the south of Nelson River."

At that time, however, Preble (1902: 42), like Richardson before him, seems to have regarded the Churchill River as the southern limit of the Barren Ground species, and thus he may not have considered the possibility of the animals of Cape Churchill and the Nelson and Hayes rivers belonging to the same species.

It is difficult to draw any sure conclusions from the confusing records just quoted. Possibly chief reliance should be placed upon the testimony of such high authorities as Hearne, Richardson, and Preble when they refer to the animals as Woodland Caribou. Furthermore, none of the early writers identify them unequivocally as the Barren Ground species. It remains fairly evident that long ago some species of Caribou in great numbers did actually cross these rivers in a southerly direction in the spring, pa.s.s the summer on the coastal tundra east of York Factory, and return northward or northwestward in late summer or autumn. Whichever species it was, it represented a segment of the population that must have become reduced to utterly insignificant numbers, if not entirely extirpated, some decades ago. In any event, it does not seem very likely that we shall ever be able to reconstruct the actual movements of the "incredible mult.i.tudes" in the York Factory region of more than a century ago.

Since the beginning of the present century, until very recent years, there seem to have been few or no Manitoba records of _R. a. arcticus_ from any locality so far to the southeast as York Factory. In 1947, however, Mr. G. W. Malaher, director of the Game and Fisheries Branch in Manitoba, informed me that during the previous couple of winters the animals had ranged southward on a broad front to the lat.i.tude of Oxford House, where they had not been known for 40 or 45 years. It was surmised that the recent burning of large areas north of The Pas, resulting in the destruction of the Caribou's normal winter food of lichens, had deflected the animals toward the southeast and had caused them to extend their migration beyond its normal limit. The Split Lake band of Indians (on the Nelson River) were said to have killed 4,000 Caribou during the winter of 1946-47, and to have used half of them for dog feed.

Arthur H. Lamont, in charge of the meteorological office at Fort Churchill, gave me information concerning Caribou that he had seen during a plane flight from that point to Edmonton on March 18, 1947. At midday he had sighted hundreds, in bands averaging 20 to 30 individuals, on some little lakes, averaging a quarter of a mile in diameter, near the southwestern end of Reindeer Lake. The animals were right in the middle of the frozen lakes (evidently for a noonday rest), and some of them were lying down. They paid no attention to the plane at a height of 6,000 feet, but were frightened when it came down to 200 feet. This was the only area where Caribou were sighted during the entire flight.

Duncan A. McLeod, of Winnipeg, informed me that he had seen thousands and thousands of Caribou on April 16, 1941, while he was flying from Isle a la Crosse to Beaverlodge on Lake Athabaska. They were nearer to Lake Athabaska than to the starting-point. They were congregated on frozen lakes about the middle of the day.

"Their nomadic migrations during the past 10 years have brought caribou herds during winter months to northwestern Ontario (Little Sachigo Lake); central Manitoba (Cormorant, Cross, and Island Lakes); northern Saskatchewan (Churchill River); northeastern Alberta (Clearwater and Athabaska Rivers and Lake Claire)" (Banfield, 1949: 478, fig. 1).

_Spring migration in the Churchill region_

The Hudson Bay Railway is perhaps the only one in North America from which Barren Ground Caribou of the present subspecies have been seen. On May 21, 1947, a pa.s.senger reported three or four of the animals near Mile 326, between Gillam and Amery. Farther north, between Herchmer and Chesnaye, the railway pa.s.ses for perhaps 30-40 miles through the western edge of a tundra area, interspersed with small spruce timber; this is known as the "Little Barrens." It was a thrilling experience to see my first Caribou here, during a period of three-quarters of an hour on the afternoon of May 21, from Mile 453 to about Mile 475. There were eight bands, varying in number from 2 to 60 or 70 and averaging about 20 individuals. The first and largest band was loping away from the train, at a distance of perhaps 350 yards. A band of 9 or 10, at about 250 yards, exhibited both a trotting and a loping gait. Others, as far off as half a mile or a mile and therefore less alarmed, seemed to content themselves with trotting. They maintained a noticeably close formation while fleeing from the train. Yearlings, appearing only about half the size of the adults, were readily distinguishable. The animals were in the midst of their spring migration and were evidently moving in a general northerly direction over the snow-covered Barrens. The ice of the small lakes was still solid enough for the Caribou to trot over it.

Two weeks previously a large movement had pa.s.sed through this area, as I learned from several sources. A member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment at Churchill, for example, had traveled through the Caribou for a distance of 15 miles without coming to the end of them; he estimated their numbers at more than 5,000. Joe Chambers, a trapper of Goose Creek, said the animals had been very plentiful in April, moving generally northward. He spoke of finding a good many Caribou that Wolves had killed, contenting themselves with eating only the tongue and the unborn fawn.

According to a railway conductor, only 12 Caribou were seen from the train as it pa.s.sed through the Little Barrens on May 25, and none on May 28.

John Ingebrigtsen, of Churchill, reported pa.s.sing a frozen lake somewhere east of the Duck Lake Post, that was "absolutely full" of Caribou. It was about a mile and a half long by half a mile wide, and he estimated the number of animals at not less than 20,000. This was in the early part of May, 1942 or 1943, when the spring migration was no doubt under way.

During a plane flight from Eskimo Point to Baker Lake on May 22, 1947, John M. Boura.s.sa and Don Gallagher sighted numbers of Caribou, including one herd of about 500. On May 28 the former saw a Caribou between Churchill and Fort Churchill. From other sources I learned that small numbers occasionally pa.s.s along the outskirts of Churchill during the migrations.