KIVALLIQ
With the possible exception of Southampton Island, caribou herds, which are the lifeblood of the Kivalliq, are doing well at the present time.

Kivalliq regional wildlife biologist Mitch Campbell led the 2008 survey on the Qamanirjuaq caribou herd. - photo courtesy of Lynne Rollin

A recent report on the Qamanirjuaq caribou herd shows it to be maintaining its strength relatively well, at about 348,000 animals.

Kivalliq regional wildlife biologist Mitch Campbell, of Arviat, led the aerial survey done on the Qamanirjuaq herd in 2008, on which the latest report is based.

He said the survey was conducted by helicopter, fixed-wing and photo aircraft.

"The numbers appear to be down from the previous survey done in 1994, which estimated herd strength to be at about 496,000," said Campbell.

"But, they didn't get a really good survey estimate in 1994, so the confidence interval was very broad, ranging from about 300,000 to more than 600,000 caribou.

"The 2008 survey, however, was very tight.

"So, because of the confidence interval in the 1994 survey, we can show the population hasn't increased, mathematically, but we can't say for certain it has decreased."

A main reason behind the 2008 survey was the decreasing trend of over-winter calf survival of the previous few years.

Campbell said the population is basically stable when you see about 25 calves for every 100 adult females.

He said 15 to 17 calves were spotted for every 100 cows during the three years prior to the 2008 survey.

"That series of data showed the trend went through stability to decreasing, so we used that as the trigger for deciding to take a closer look.

"Caribou are very resilient when their population is increasing and very little disturbs them.

"However, when decreasing, their health declines and they become jumpy and very sensitive to stress, and these things can affect their feeding habits and productivity.

"We can control disturbance when they're in decline, and go into the communities to get suggestions on how we can ease up on the caribou until they rebound."

Rankin Inlet, Arviat, Baker Lake, Whale Cove and Chesterfield Inlet harvest from the Qamanirjuaq caribou herd.

Most harvesting in Repulse Bay is taken from the Wager Bay herd, which migrates past Repulse in the spring and fall on its way to the Melville Peninsula.

Campbell said the last study done on that herd showed it appeared to be doing okay.

"We haven't really done any recent research on the Wager Bay herd because Repulse hunters are telling us things are fine.

"The caribou seem healthy, and they come every year in about the same numbers.

The news isn't quite as good on Southampton Island, where the Southampton herd continues to struggle with the brucellosis disease.

Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that affects the caribou's reproductive tracts, causing females to become non-productive for a year, or possibly two, and causing males to become sterile due to the damage done to their testicles, preventing them from producing viable sperm.

The disease can be transferred to humans, but is completely curable through antibiotic treatments.

The herd was reintroduced to Southampton from Coats Island in 1967.

The original 48 caribou taken to Southampton grew to 30,000 by 1997.

Campbell said it's estimated less than half that number remain today.

But, he said, that doesn't mean herd numbers will continue to decline.

"We don't really know all that much about brucellosis, but it rarely wipes out an entire herd.

"It's in every caribou population across the world.

"For whatever reasons, the caribou seem to handle it well, so there's reason to believe the herd will right itself with time.

"In fact, the long-term carrying capacity on the island is, probably, about 15,000 animals and we're in that neighbourhood right now."

Campbell said overall, the Kivalliq's caribou population is doing well.

He said the co-management system has worked quite nicely in the region.

"We're working very closely with the communities for all management and research-related issues.

"The communities take the information we provide and make decisions to address the issues, such as on Southampton Island where they voluntarily cut their commercial harvest completely off a couple of years back.

"We have a lot of hunters on the land who provide information and allow us to keep track of things.

"It's a good system here and everyone is working together well, so we'll keep the information flowing to the communities, act when we need to and not worry about it when we don't."

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