Cara Loverock
Northern News Services
Published Friday, November 23, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - It is unclear whether or not caribou will be heading our way this winter.

According to Raymond Bourget, senior wildlife officer for the North Slave Region, caribou are unpredictable in their migration patterns.

"Even years when it appears they're going to show up here, at the last minute they turn around and make a mad dash east or west or even back north," said Bourget.

"Past patterns indicate that anything can happen."

Bourget said five years ago the caribou were at the east end of the Ingraham Trail for roughly a week then moved North. They were also present on the Ingraham Trail in the fall of 2004.

In the last couple years, however, the animals have been scarce.

Weather conditions can also affect where the caribou will be in the coming months.

"Some years where there hasn't been a lot of snow up in the Barrens, the caribou basically stayed up there," said Bourget. "They didn't come very far down."

Because caribou travel across frozen lakes, the length of time it takes for freeze up will also have an effect on where the herds go.

"If freeze up is late, then they're generally a lot slower in moving south," he said.

"If you have an early freeze up, then they'll move earlier because the ice is there for them to walk across."

Bourget said local lakes froze a bit late this year, but there is sufficient enough ice now for caribou to travel across.

"So they certainly should be moving now if they're going to move because the ice is there," he said.

Gary Steele, with Wolverine Guns and Tackle, said that the store has sold a number of tags in anticipation of the caribou hunt.

"We've sold quite a number of tags in preparation I'd say, more than for immediate use," said Steele.

"People are getting ready for (hunting caribou). They've obviously got their machines tuned up, anticipating the hunt."

The quota for non-aboriginal hunters is two bulls, down from five from either sex when quotas were dropped in 2006 in response to declining herd numbers. There are no limits on the aboriginal hunt.