MITTIMATALIK/POND INLET - Hunters in Pond Inlet are concerned about tracking collars after discovering a bloody collar on a caribou caught in the area the weekend of March 20.

This photo of a tracking collar removed from a caribou in the Pond Inlet area was taken March 23. It has hunters concerned about the welfare of animals outfitted with the collars. - photo courtesy of Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization

In an e-mail to Nunavut News/North, a local hunter who asked not to be identified said he learned about the animal from the harvesters who caught it.

The caribou's neck had been visibly wounded by the collar, he said. The fur around its neck had been worn away and its neck had obviously been bleeding.

"You can see this picture; we feel that the caribou had been suffering from pain because there was no fur around the neck of the caribou and the skin was cut with the collar," he said in the e-mail. "It's so ugly to see our wildlife and food with pain and suffering."

The hunter also said he was told the collared caribou appeared "more scared" than the rest of the herd before it was harvested.

The hunters who caught the animal were not aware it had a collar before it was caught, he also said.

The Government of Nunavut's biologist for the Kivalliq region Mitch Campbell said collar injuries are infrequent, but they do happen.

"It's not a common result," he said. "We've heard of it before, but it's rare."

Campbell said injuries can occur if a caribou loses weight after being fitted with a tracking collar. The collar then becomes loose and can rub on the neck and cause damage.

"It's only in extreme circumstances that the collars get loose," he added.

Usually, caribou produce felt-like short fur beneath the collars which prevents injury, he said. Collars in Nunavut are also equipped with a timing mechanism that releases the collar after a certain amount of time has passed, he said. In the Kivalliq region, the time period is usually just over three years.

Nunavut Tunngavik's director of wildlife Gabriel Nirlungayuk said a caribou's fur and skin are more sensitive than many people think.

He also said while data from tracking collars is valuable, many Inuit believe it can be obtained in ways that don't involve placing tracking collars on animals.

"They [Inuit] are not against science, but there are alternatives," he said.

Nirlungayuk said methods used by biologists provide a "snapshot" of a short period of time while Inuit traditional knowledge provides the bigger picture.

"Using traditional knowledge I think is a big step for biologists because when you put a collar or do an aerial survey, it's a snapshot," he said. "What Inuit have is long and in- depth knowledge from generation to generation."

He said Inuit have been observing caribou for generations and hunters and biologists should collaborate more when studying animals.

"Utilize the local hunters and give them some funding to help the biologists," he said. "After all, they're in it for the same reason."

Campbell said certain information can only be collected through data obtained by tracking collars, including current locations of herds and migration routes.

Data is used to inform resource development companies about when caribou herds will pass through an area so they can shut down operations.

"The resource development companies are quite good at co-ordinating with us," he said.

Data is also used to determine when population surveys should take place.

For example, if the collars indicated the caribou weren't heading to their normal calving grounds, performing a survey in that area that year would not provide accurate numbers, Campbell said.

"We need them or else we wouldn't know when to go out and look," he said. "For caribou, there just simply isn't another method that is technologically available.

"If we want this kind of information, the only method is collaring data."

Campbell said with caribou herds across the North in decline, getting up-to-date information on herds is especially important.

He also said the weight of the collars has been reduced since collaring began about 20 years ago.

"We've reduced the collar weight by half of what it was when we first started deploying collars in the 1990s," he said.

Campbell said as soon as it is possible to get the same data by other means, the department will jump on board.

"We don't like collaring either," he said. "As soon as technology is available, we'll move away from handling wildlife."