by Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 25/97) - Just what is happening to the Peary caribou?

While Inuit hunters turn their guns in other directions, government surveyors are turning their attention eastward to track the endangered animals. The next survey will cover Ellesmere, Devon and Axel Heiberg islands and satellite islands.

The move is part of an attempt to produce a good estimate of the herd's size, which has plummeted since the 1960s, when 25,000 Peary caribou roamed Canada's Arctic. July's survey of the western High Arctic islands found just 1,100 Peary caribou.

In all, there may be only 2,000 of the animals left, according to researchers with the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development. Peary caribou are found nowhere else in the world.

After July's survey, an effort to airlift 20 to 25 Peary caribou to the Calgary Zoo to ensure a few individuals survive, was put together.

But the capture plan, which put a Department of National Defence aircraft on standby, was aborted last weekend. Timing and a need for more consultation with Nunavut wildlife authorities are being blamed for the decision to wait.

It was the second time in less than a year that an airlift was aborted.

"The results of the survey came in late. We found ourselves sharing information late in the season. It's late fall in the High Arctic and the window of opportunity had already diminished when we got the results in mid-August," territorial Wildlife Minister Stephen Kakfwi said.

He also said it was not "absolutely critical" that the airlift be attempted this year. "As minister, I decided if management boards want to take more time, I can go with that."

A capture in 1998 is "under consideration," Kakfwi said.

Nunavut Wildlife Management Board members rejected the airlift after hunters and trappers associations in Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord, as well as the Wildlife Management Advisory Council, opposed the move.

There was "concern about moving a Northern animal to the South (and back again). It was though it would be too stressful on the animal," said the board's wildlife director, Daniel Pike.

He also said that there was some doubt that the situation is "grave" as some suggest. Peary caribou are being spotted in the Grise Fiord area and that area has not been surveyed, he said.

The GNWT's wildlife director, Doug Stewart, said the evidence so far, however, warrants concern. "It's not so much the absolute numbers, it's the rate of decline. There's been a significant mortality. That's why we're concerned," he said.

Hunters and biologists blamed three consecutive years of abnormal fall and winter weather conditions as the main reason for recent declines.

There are also indications of poor calf crops, Stewart added.

Government surveys over the years show declines and increases, but not to original levels.

The July survey show numbers have continued to decline. The survey, headed by NWT biologist Anne Gunn, was conducted with the support of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, Polar Continental Shelf Project and Parks Canada.

Gunn also chairs the team which prepares a federal recovery plans for the Peary caribou. The team is expected to have a review completed next month, although it must then go out for consultation before being adopted, Stewart says.

The Wildlife Department is hoping recommendations will be ready in spring, said Stewart.

The GNWT, Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, Wildlife Management Advisory Council of the NWT and the hunters and trappers organizations in Resolute and Grise Fiord are part of the discussion on what moves will be made to help the Peary caribou.

The government will continue to co-operate with wildlife boards and affected communities, Kakfwi said. "We plan to utilize the knowledge and expertise of people closest to this situation.

"At this time, we have agreed to continue to monitor the situation and conduct a comprehensive joint assessment of management and recovery options," he said.

"While we are doing that, the Inuit will continue to voluntarily restrict their hunting, and RWED will continue to support the people in finding other sources of country food."