Rankin Inlet (July 26/06) - Wildlife officers who say they had no choice but to blindfold and shoot two baby muskoxen are now contemplating charges against the barrenland prospectors who nursed the animals back to health.

The case dominated radio waves in the Kivalliq last week after news broke that game wardens travelled to Ferguson Lake, about 250 kilometres west of Rankin Inlet, July 14 and killed the muskoxen.

The trip followed a week-long investigation into allegations that workers at a nickel exploration camp were harbouring the abandoned animals, said Drikus Gissing, area director with the Nunavut wildlife service.

Wildlife officers believe the prospectors had been feeding the calves a diet of canned milk for about two months following their discovery on the ice-covered Ferguson Lake this spring. Harbouring wild animals is against the law and violates the camp's environmental permits, he said.

"People should be aware the (muskoxen) are wild animals and they should let nature take its course."

But at least one person disagrees with the decision to kill the animals. Bert Livingstone, a manager with Missinippi Airways, the charter company that ferried the wildlife officers to Ferguson Lake, said officials should have tried to re-introduce the animals into their herd.

"I was devastated," Livingstone said about his reaction to hearing the news the muskoxen had been blindfolded and shot in the head.

"They were in no imminent danger. No alternatives were explored."

When wildlife officials chartered the plane, Livingstone said there was "no indication" the animals would be killed.

"Otherwise, I would have let somebody else do their dirty work."

Last year, a baby muskoxen named Chance was discovered, near death, on the tundra outside Cambridge.

Workers at an airline company nursed Chance back to health and he was eventually flown 1,500 kilometres to a game reserve outside Whitehorse, Yukon.

While that story gained national attention, Gissing said relocating muskoxen is rarely practical.

"There are over 4,000 in the Kivalliq alone. It is not like we're dealing with an endangered species." According to some estimates, there are about 120,000 muskoxen in the North.

Wildlife officers and hunters from Baker Lake explored the possibility of integrating the animals back into the herd, but the chances of that happening were slim, said Gissing.

Finding the herd would have been nearly impossible and, after the two-month separation, the muskoxen's mothers would be "dry," said Gissing. (The babies were still dependent on milk.)

The calves would have likely starved to death or been eaten by predators, which is why officers decided to shoot them, said Gissing.

"We're conservationists. I don't like killing animals."

Gissing believes people get wrapped-up in muskoxen's "cuddly" appearance and forget they are wild.

"They don't stay cuddly forever. At some stage they're going to be dangerous animals."

Meanwhile, the company that owns the Ferguson Lake property, Starfield Resources, is "not in the business" of harbouring animals, said project manager Bruce Ballantyne.

Ballantyne told the Kivalliq News he had not heard about the killing before being contacted by the newspaper. He said, however, "human nature" could have lead workers to take in the starving animals.

"That is the knee-jerk reaction. (But) if it's wild, it should fend for itself. That means, unfortunately, let it die naturally."

The camp, which was re-opened by Starfield in 1999, is home to about 35 workers during the summer months, said Ballantyne. Muskoxen are a common sight around the nickel, platinum, cobalt, copper and palladium deposit, which is located on an island in Ferguson Lake.

Ballantyne said last week he would rather the workers not talk with the media. "This (situation) can get difficult for both the conservation officers and the people."

Under Nunavut's wildlife act, individuals face everything from a warning letter to a maximum of six months in jail and a $500,000 fine. Gissing declined to comment on what penalties harbouring wildlife usually attract.

The muskoxen were due to be shipped to Baker Lake last week, where their meat would be given to residents.