Migratory Woodland Caribou
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| Rangifer tarandus caribou (Linnaeus, 1758) |
The migratory woodland caribou (in Latin, Rangifer tarandus caribou) of Northern Quebec and Labrador live in two wild herds, the Leaf herd with 628,000 individuals and the George River herd with 385,000 individuals. The caribou generally travel upwards of 2,000 km annually and live in an area of about 1,000,000 square kilometres. Some individuals have been observed traveling 6,000 km in a single year.
The caribou population varies considerably, for unknown reasons, and their numbers have apparently peaked in the later decades of each of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The most recent decline at the turn of the 20th century caused much hardship for the Inuit and Cree communities of Nunavik, Quebec, who hunt them for subsistence. By 1950, as few as 5,000 caribou remained in Northern Quebec and Labrador.
The George River herd, south of Ungava Bay, whose numbers reached about 800,000 towards 1993, had about 385,000 individuals in 2001. The Leaf herd in the west, near the coast of Hudson Bay, has grown from 270,000 individuals in 1991 to 628,000 in 2001. Inuit, Cree and southern sport hunters kill about 30,000 caribou each year in Northern Québec.
A much smaller population of migratory woodland caribou, perhaps numbering about 20,000, is found in Northern Ontario, on the coastal plains south of Hudson Bay.
[edit] Caribou drownings at Calcaire Falls in 1984
In September 1984, about 150 km south of the Northern village of Kuujjuaq, Québec, about 10,000 caribou (about 1.5% of the George River herd) drowned while crossing the Calcaire Falls on the Caniapiscau River, a tributary of the Koksoak River that flows into southern Ungava Bay. Although the caribou regularly criss-cross northern rivers and lakes and can swim 10 km at a stretch, northern rivers and lakes often claim lives during their annual migrations. At the time of the accident, observers raised questions about the management of the newly built reservoir on the headwaters of the Caniapiscau River, some 450 km upstream, and focused their attention on decisions made in the days following the exceptionally heavy rains in September 1984. The Caniapiscau Reservoir is part of the La Grande hydroelectric complex in Northern Quebec. The waters of the upper Caniapiscau River, which flow north, were diverted to the La Grande River of the James Bay watershed to the west.
After investigation, the Québec Recreation, Hunting and Fishing Department – whose employee had discovered the dead caribou on September 30th -- came to the conclusion that a larger number of caribou would have perished had the Caniapiscau Reservoir not yet been built, since the water flow at the falls would have been even greater in the absence of the reservoir.
On the other hand, in a short but savvy analysis, Quebec’s Indian and Inuit Secretariat (SIGMAI) expressed the opinion that the fast-growing George River herd may have become accustomed to the reduced water flow from 1981 to 1984, during which time the reservoir was being filled. SIGMAI hypothesizes that the caribou may have been surprised as the water flow of the Caniapiscau River was partially restored to its natural state in mid-September 1984, after the filling of reservoir had been completed. The partial release of the headwaters back into the Caniapiscau was necessary because the power stations on the La Grande River could not yet turbine the full water flow. According to Hydro-Québec, any major addition of water to the La Grande River would by necessity have been diverted around the power stations for months, even years, and seriously damage the floodgates which were designed for temporary use during exceptional climatic events.
Thus, SIGMAI chastised the Société d'énergie de la Baie James, a subsidiary of Hydro-Québec, that had just completed the construction of the reservoir, for not having planned to actively manage the restored water flow to the Caniapiscau River in such a way as to protect the caribou herd from exceptional floods caused by heavy rains or rapid spring thaw. This was a rather novel idea at the time, as no Canadian wildlife expert had foreseen anything more than the usual mortality along the rivers of the region (up to 500 deaths every year).
The Quebec game officials did, however, put forward the opinion that a dynamic management of the water levels and flows of the Caniapiscau Reservoir could have avoided the high mortality observed in September 1984, either completely, or at least reduced it to levels observed in recent years. SIGMAI finally recommended that the water levels of the reservoir be lowered by about 0.5 meter for several months of the year in order to avoid the use of the flood gates during extreme rainfalls when the caribou are migrating in late summer and early fall. Of course, this is largely a moot point today, since virtually no water has been diverted back into the lower Caniapiscau since 1985. Furthermore, a fence was installed to divert the herd from the danger zone near the Calcaire Falls.
[edit] External links
- Migration of caribou – Maps
- Caribou hunting in Nuvavik
- HAYEUR, Gaëtan. 2001. Summary of Knowledge Acquired in Northern Environments from 1970 to 2000. Montreal: Hydro-Québec
[edit] References
Government of Quebec, Ministère du Loisir, de la Chasse et de la Pêche (Department of Recreation, Fish and Game). 1985. Considérations relatives à la noyade de caribous du fleuve George sur la rivière Caniapiscau (septembre 1984), Quebec City: MLCP, xvi+100p. (+appendices).
Government of Quebec, Secrétariat des activités gouvernementales en milieu amérindien et inuit (SIGMAI). 1985. Noyade des caribous sur la rivière Caniapiscau des 28 et 29 septembre 1984, Quebec City: SAGMAI, 14p. (+appendices).
