Yellowknife (Sep 25/06) - The territorial government plans to closely monitor aboriginal caribou hunters with a possible eye towards limiting their harvest following revelations last week herd numbers are dwindling in the central NWT.

"The one unmonitored piece of the harvest is the aboriginal hunt. We have to sit down and talk about how we monitor and regulate the whole harvest, so we can control that impact," said environment minister Michael Miltenberger.

Estimated to be 128,000 animals this year, the Bathurst caribou herd is down 58,000 from a 2003 count and nearly 350,000 since a 1986 tally.

Measures taken this year include a reduction in resident non-aboriginal tags to two from five. As well, outfitters saw their quotas dropped by 30 per cent.

Gary Steele, a former guide for 15 years and gun repair specialist at Wolverine Sports in Yellowknife, is skeptical of government numbers and disputes hunting and harvesting is the biggest impact on the herd most sought after by Yellowknife area hunters. "It's pretty hard to get an accurate count on those caribou and they do migrate into other areas," he said.

Steele believes that predation of calves may provide part of the explanation and reiterated the opinion shared by other area hunters that increases in the wolf and grizzly bear population are to blame.

"It's probably due to premature calves getting predated on, whether it be wolves or bears, we know those animals are hard on the caribou herds," added Steele. "And there's not as many people on the land taking care of the wolves, that's just a theory from myself and other fellows who have spent time on the Barrens."

Add that to a moratorium on grizzly bear tags, and increased human encroachment in the name of mineral exploration and development, Steele called it a recipe for the current situation.

However, Ray Case, manager of technical support for Environment and Natural Resources' (ENR) wildlife division, said wolf populations in the region have actually decreased. "We can't point to any one cause, it's not that wolves didn't have a role, they undoubtedly did, as did harvesting, particularly adult females," said Case.

"Also there's weather factors, severe summers with severe insect harassments that reduces the caribou's ability to feed over the summer, so it's impossible to tease out the specific contribution of each factor.

According to Case, the next step is for ENR to discuss management options with aboriginal groups and other hunters who use the herd.

"We're confident all will recognize a need to conserve the caribou and come up with some management options and strategies that we can work with."

The Bathurst herd has been monitored since 1986 and previously it was counted every six to seven years.

However, with the drastic decline that was documented in the 2003 count, caribou management policy dictates the time between surveys be reduced to three years.