Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 28/98) - The ultimate in animal-tracking takes place not on the ground, but miles up in space.

Biologists get pinpoint fixes on the location of grizzly bears, polar bears, caribou, wolves and wolverines outfitted with special satellite collars.

So what about moving the high-tech in hunting to a whole new level. Forget the laser scopes, leave the night goggles at home -- all you need is your gun, snowmobile a GPS receiver, radio and a good laptop.

"They would have to know the frequency of each collar and would need quite a bit of equipment," explained Peter Krizan, a polar bear biologist working out of the GNWT's Iqaluit office.

Okay, but if hunters had the equipment, wouldn't it be great to just press a few buttons and be able to find out exactly where the caribou are at that exact moment?

RWED caribou biologist Anne Gunn said that's not very far-fetched where stalking caribou is concerned.

Gunn said she faxes out updates on locations of the Bathurst herd to 30 different HTAs and aboriginal organizations each week.

"You could download observations directly into a GPS plugged into a laptop and get to within 300 yards of where the caribou was three to 12 hours ago," said Gunn. "From there on, your on your own."

Resolute hunter Aleeasuk Idlout said people of her hamlet have never resorted to the laptop-GPS method.

"We've never bothered to ask them where they are," said Idlout. She said she knew the Canadian Wildlife Service office in Ottawa had that information.

"One time we got the community renewable resources officer to call, because we were having a community hunt, but by the time we got there they were gone."

Idlout noted that hunters in her area have asked the government not to use collars on polar bears. She said some hunters have found two or three collared bears that have starved to death.

"The collars aren't very heavy, but they are bulky. They can stop bears from diving into seal dens ... sometimes they get caught in the cracks bears try to get through."

Krizan said that to conserve battery power, most collars are programmed to give positions only once every few days.

There are currently five collared polar bears between Resolution Island and the north end of the Ungava Peninsula. In the North there are currently 13 grizzly bears, 39 wolves, 14 wolverines and about 30 caribou wearing radio or satellite collars.