Yellowknife (Apr 15/05) - The wildlife staff in the regional Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) office - formerly Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development - have just completed a couple of large-scale projects that we would like to update people on.

The biological sampling part of the moose monitoring program we initiated in the fall recently wrapped up for this year. We would like to thank all of the local harvesters who participated in the sampling program and provided samples from their moose. We especially appreciate the support for the program from Liidlii Kue First Nation and the Nahanni Butte Dene Band. The kidney and bone marrow samples have been analyzed for their fatness as an indicator of animal condition. Samples of the kidneys have also been analyzed for the concentrations of a variety of heavy metals.

The teeth will be forwarded to a lab for aging later in the month. Because some heavy metal concentrations increase in animals as they grow older (bioaccumulation) we must know the age of the animal before we can assess contaminant levels.

We will be requesting that local harvesters participate in this program during the fall 2005 hunting season and encourage harvesters from Wrigley, Jean Marie River and Fort Liard to become involved. ENR will be reimbursing harvesters who provide biological samples from their moose.

In early March, we deployed satellite radio collars on boreal caribou as part of a Northwest Territories-wide boreal caribou program. Snow and weather conditions were ideally suited for the capture operation. Satellite collars were deployed on eight boreal caribou in an area northwest of Trout Lake. That brings the total number of collared animals in the Trout Lake area to 16. Some of the caribou collared near Celibeta Lake in March 2003 spent part of the winter south of the border in northeastern B.C. Sambaa K'e Dene Band has been and continues to be very supportive of this work and band members were actively involved in aerial reconnaissance flights prior to the capture operation and after collar deployment.

Satellite collars were also deployed on five boreal caribou north of the Mackenzie River in the lower Ebbutt Hills area. This work was supported by Liidlii Kue First Nations and the Fort Simpson Metis Local with local residents participating in the aerial reconnaissance flights prior to and after the capture operation. One collared caribou north of the Mackenzie River was killed by wolves sometime over the March 26-27 weekend. We discovered and retrieved the downed collar, along with a few bones, antlers and teeth on March 30. The teeth will be sent out for aging. By the wear of the teeth, we suspect this might have been an older animal. Last year a collared caribou killed by wolves near Celibeta Lake was 14 years old.

- Nic Larter is the regional biologist for the Deh Cho