Kirsten Larsen
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 11/99) - The windchill and unfinished winter roads are not stopping the success of the hunt for caribou in the North Slave.

Herds of caribou have been roaming around the North Slave area since November and are reported to be within close access of some surrounding communities.

A hunting party from Gameti set up camp a mere half hour from home recently and brought back a bountiful hunt.

"There were six of us with six Ski-doos," said Fred Mantla, a band councillor for the Gameti First Nation Band. "We spent two nights in a tent and shot 17 (caribou). We skinned and cut them up and brought them back."

The herds which Mantla and the hunting party found later headed out to Hottah Lakes just before New Year's and are reportedly on their way back to Rae Lakes.

The communities have been paying close attention to the radio tracking reports sent out by the department of renewable resources every 10 days. The department is monitoring the movement of the herds through radio transmission signals picked up by satellite from collars worn by 20 caribou.

The last reading of the signals on Jan. 2 and Jan. 4 reported a herd in the area between Hottah Lake and Gameti. Wekweti is also reported to have a herd close by, just south of the community. Other herds are scattered around the south end of Gordon Lake, one east of Lupin Mine and another southeast of Reliance.

Despite the colder weather these past few days, some hunters are braving the elements, especially in the communities such as Wekweti where the caribou are close.

"I know of (a father and son) who went out looking today," said Madeline Judas, a lay dispenser for health and social services in Wekweti. "There are some (caribou) in a spot not far from Snare Lakes."

Although the ice roads are not complete yet, renewable resource officers, who travel roads frequently, report that even in their incomplete form, the roads are providing hunters with easy access to the caribou. One officer said he had passed by a party of hunters travelling along the road who had just shot caribou.