Today's News
A/CPB
Caribou Migration Update: April 17, 1997
| To: | Journey North |
| From: | Robert Mulders, NWT Department of Renewable Resources |
| Date: | April 16, 1997 |
"Greetings from Arviat. We just had a blizzard on Sunday and Monday, but today we have a gorgeous spring day at -3 C. As you can see from the location data, animal # 6977 has moved very little over the past 2 weeks, while animal #3924 is moving to the NE, probably with the Beverly herd. Animal #3926 is moving virtually due east and has covered a fair bit of ground since April 2. I guess she realizes she's behind, and definitely appears to be coming to join the "Qamamirjuag"(Kaminuriak) herd for calving.
- Link to Today's Data
Robert Mulders
"I'd like to answer the Pequot Lakes School & Antioch Community High School students who wanted to what's involved in "refurbishing" the collars we removed in March . We needed to replace the lithium batteries, since they only last for 2 years. Also, some of the antennae were broken or worn out, as was the 2' wide belting on the collar. We "recycle" them by sending them back to the manufacturer in Arizona. They cost $3,500 new, but only $750 per collar to have them repaired. We hope to have them back by late April, but they've been held up at customs. When the collars are fixed, we'll go back out and put them on new caribou.
USFWS
"At the same time, I have to retrieve a collar from one of our grizzly bears. She's located 80 miles west of Rankin Inlet. We collared her back in 1993, and she should be waking up pretty soon.
If we can't locate her by satellite, we'll fly transects and find her with the radio. I'll bring along a baseball bat, so I can hit my assistant Dave Abernathy in the knees if she does wake up. (That way, the bear will get Dave instead of me.)
To save batteries on grizzly collars, we program them to transmit only when the bears are expected to be out of hibernation, from mid-April until November 1st. During that time, the collars transmit every 3 days only.
USFWS
"We've learned grizzly's range is fairly localized, compared to polar bears who are very wide-ranging. The 2 bears just have different strategies. Grizzlies are omnivores, using vegetarian foods, digging up arctic grounds squirrels, and feeding on any carcass they can take advantage of. We did find this particular grizzly using the caribou calving grounds one year for 1 week or 10 days, feeding on calves. They try to ambush the young calves.
"Last week I wrote a summary of our work for local hunters. They're interested in wildlife and the research we doing, and they've been stopping in the office for the past 2-3 weeks for coffee and to look at our maps. They haven't had access to caribou all winter, since herds have wintered so far to the west. They hunt wolves as well as caribou, so by reviewing our maps, they can find big concentrations. Of course that's not the purpose of our work, but it is a side benefit. We keep a careful eye on caribou population numbers, so we know hunting doesn't take too many."
Talk to you later,
Robert Mulders
The Next Caribou Migration Update Will be Posted on May 1, 1997.