Jess McDiarmid
Northern News Services
Published Friday, November 2, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The shooting of a white-tail deer near Wool Bay last month was one of a handful in the North in the past 30 years.

Just last month, a white-tail was shot near Fort Good Hope - the first report of the species north of the Arctic Circle.

A white-tail was bagged near Yellowknife in 1976 and another roughly five years ago on Marion Lake near Behchoko, said Dean Cluff, biologist with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

There was also a reported kill near Thompson's Landing in 1980, though Cluff hasn't been able to confirm it.

Deer are moving into the area via the Highway 3 corridor, he said.

They probably cross Great Slave Lake from the Hay River and Fort Resolution area as well.

"Both sides of the lake can support movement," said Cluff. "It was interesting to me that the (Wool Bay deer) was a doe, not a buck. I suspect there's probably a few more around ... I wouldn't be surprised if we do see more."

Cluff said the Wool Bay deer will be tested for parasites which some carry that are harmful to moose and caribou.

The parasite, commonly called a "brain worm," hasn't been found in the North to date. A white-tail was killed further north around Norman Wells in 1996 while swimming across the Mackenzie River, said Alasdair Veitch, Sahtu region supervisor of wildlife management with Environment and Natural Resources.

Then this past September, a hunter from Fort Good Hope shot a three-year-old white-tail buck roughly 45 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle.

"No white-tail deer had ever been reported north of the Arctic Circle before," said Veitch, who published a paper on deer in the Northwest Territories after the 1996 kill. "That one just floored me."

Veitch said they don't know what a deer was doing so far north but said it was in good condition. Tests couldn't be done on the animal because the hunter, thinking it wasn't a big deal, gave away the meat after shooting it. But Veitch said he's treating it as a confirmed case.

White-tails moved into the territory in the late 1950s or early 1960s and, along with hosts of other species, seem to be moving north, breeding fears that other wildlife could be disrupted.

"The main concern we have with the incursion of species is it can upset the balance of things," said Veitch.

"Who knows where the next one will show up? Inuvik?"