Yellowknife (Apr 21/06) - For Yellowknife residents, this winter's caribou hunt was anything but successful, according to senior wildlife officer Raymond Bourget.

Betsy Mawdsley from Fort Smith skins a caribou earlier this winter. A wildlife officer says hunters around Yellowknife had little luck this season. - NNSL file photo

Though the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is still compiling data collected from hunters venturing onto the Ingraham Trail and beyond, he estimates only one out of 10 hunting trips resulted in meat for the freezer this winter.

"It's been pretty meagre," said Bourget. "There were a lot of people we checked without any game at all."

The annual caribou migration from the Barrenlands is highly variable. Last year, some herds ventured within a few kilometres of city limits, but that wasn't the case this year, said Bourget.

The bulk of the Bathurst herd - the group most likely to be seen by hunters departing from Yellowknife - decided to head further east this winter, towards the East Arm of Great Slave Lake, leaving only a few remnant herds along traditional hunting grounds on the Ingraham Trail and nearby winter roads.

"It's pretty difficult to determine why caribou do what they do," said Bourget. "We just know they have fluctuations in the places they travel. The wintering area can be anywhere from west of Great Slave Lake to the east side right down to the border.

"It likely has to do with weather, snow conditions and that sort of thing that determines where they're going to go. That would be my guess."

Gary Steele, a gunsmith at Wolverine Guns and Tackle, said recent changes to caribou hunting regulations plus poor ice conditions along travelling routes appear to have kept hunters at home this winter.

On March 15, the territorial government imposed stricter rules for hunting caribou, including a reduced number of tags and a prohibition on harvesting cows.

"Everybody was almost reluctant to go hunting at all because they were afraid of shooting a cow," said Steele.

Bourget said hunters have turned in four cows shot by accident since the ban took effect. Another animal was seized after a hunter failed to attach the testicles and scrotum to the carcass afterwards to prove it was a bull.

He said none of the hunters who turned in the cows were charged. The meat was donated to a homeless shelter.

"This is so new for a lot of people that we anticipate some people will make some errors," said Bourget. "So we're giving them a bit of a break on that."

The caribou hunting season for resident hunters ends April 30.