Neils Christensen
Northern News Services

Pond Inlet (Oct 13/03) - Michael Ferguson is studying Peary caribou and muskox in the high Arctic. He spoke recently to News/North:

Mike Ferguson places a radio collar on a sedated muskox on Devon Island. The collar tracks the animals movements. - photo courtesy of Mike Ferguson

News/North: What are you studying and what does that involve?

Michael Ferguson: We're working on a study of Peary caribou and muskoxen, which are considered endangered in the high Arctic. The populations declined in the mid-1990s and we need to find out what the quotas should be. To conduct the studies we use the best information that we can which includes Inuit knowledge, or IQ, as we call it today. We couple that with other scientific information. We've been doing this study for the last four years.

N/N: How much do you depend on Inuit knowledge of the environment and ungulates?

MF: There hasn't been enough science going on in the Arctic to set the proper context to interpret what's happening today. If you look at nothing but the science and don't have any of that context the Inuit have then you make completely different conclusions. That context has changed the direction of my science. I'm asking predictive questions. Often elders can make predictions about this impact will have this affect on the animals. If you have that information you go out and do predictive testing through science and combine the two.

N/N: What are some things your studies have revealed.

MF: In some areas of the high Arctic there has been major declines in populations. The declines seem to come after severe winters. It also seems to happen after increase in populations. The question we have to answer is, are there too many animals on the land and when the bad weather comes is there a major crash in population or there's not enough vegetation to support the increase.

N/N: What is the situation of the caribou and muskoxen? Are you seeing the population starting to increase?

MF: The studies we've been doing are still a little too early to tell. There was a major crash of caribou on Bathers Island between 1995 and 1997. I did a survey in 1981 and we estimated about 250 on Bathers Island. In 1994 the population had increased and was around 3,000 caribou.

People in Resolute Bay started talking to me and were concerned that the population was getting too big. They said if there was a severe winter a lot of the animals wouldn't be able to survive. Then we got three bad winters all in a row and the population at that time dropped from, 3000 to in 1997 a study showed there was about 100 on Bathers Island. There were about 1,000 more animals on other island to the west. We've just started looking at those populations.

N/N: You recently went to Finland and Iceland for conferences. What was that like?

MF: It was a great chance to find out what's happening elsewhere in the circumpolar world on these issues.

N/N: Are these issues you're dealing with common around the world?

MF: No. the broader issues of climate change and the human impact on the Arctic environment, are fairly universal around the circumpolar area. Some of the details are different in other areas.

Finland gave us an opportunity to present some of the work we've done with the muskoxen and caribou.

A benefit of going to these conferences to get the work that we're doing in Nunavut recognized on a world stage that we're doing high quality work.

It will show that IQ and other indigenous people's knowledge plays a role in environmental management.