Then, during the past two decades, caribou populations in Newfoundland began to plummet, from approximately 95,000 animals to current esti- mates of 29,000. From the mid-1990s to about 2010, the George River herd crashed by 99 percent to less than 8,000. The caribou, like many animal populations, have
natural fluctuations in numbers, but this was some- thing different. According to Sherbrooke University biologist Marco Festa-Bianchet who has studied the animals for a dozen years, a complex, interlocking web of human activity has exacerbated those nat- ural fluctuations in recent decades. Caribou avoid disturbed areas, so logging, mining, building power lines, and mining oil and gas have changed and com- pressed the caribou’s environment markedly. Once logging or forest fires remove standing
trees, young trees and brush start growing in their stead, and moose and deer move in to forage on them. Wolves, bears and coyotes follow the moose and deer. Roads, cross-country ski tracks and snow- mobile trails also serve as paths for predators to enter caribou territory. The predators’ population then swells, and they start preying on caribou. For instance, on the island of Newfoundland, bears and coyotes are the primary predators of caribou calves, limiting the number of calves that reach reproduc- tive age, said a recent report from the government of Newfoundland and Labrador. The provincial government responded to the
herd’s collapse with the bluntest of instruments, given the extreme decline of the herd. Hunting cari- bou was forbidden in the province beginning in 2013, a decision made with only minimal input from the Inuit themselves and with little regard for its cultural
The caribou are part of Inuit peoples’ identity. So if these animals are gone, part of them and their culture also disappears.
impact, said Jamie Snook, executive director of the Torngat Wildlife, Plants and Fisheries Secretariat in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. The ban was expected to last for five years, but as the population has yet to stabilize and grow, it remains in effect. “The goal of the hunting ban on Labrador’s migratory caribou is to prevent the complete loss of George River caribou and to allow the herd to recover so Indigenous communities can carry out caribou-related traditional activities without jeop- ardizing the sustainability of the herd for future generations,” said the province’s Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture, in a statement from spokesperson Linda Skinner. Today, young Inuit such as Nicholas Flowers, a
college student from Hopedale, Labrador, are denied the experience that Robert Watt remembers so well. “I never got to go on a hunt,” said Flowers with regret. “Bringing back food for your family brings something beautiful into a hunter’s life, and that first caribou was an important milestone for a young person. I’m sad not to have had that opportunity.
Skills like preparing hides for clothing may be lost if the current ban on hunting caribou continues and the knowledge of Inuit elders can no longer be passed down to their children and grandchildren. Here a woman in Quebec in 1958 is trimming a caribou hide, which could be used to make parkas, such as this one worn by a Naskapi (Natashquan band) hunter in 1924.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
WINTER 2022
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LEFT: PHOTO BY WILLIAM F. STILES, 1958, QUEBEC, CANADA, NMAI ARCHIVES, S02033 RIGHT: PHOTO BY FRANK G. SPECK, 1924, QUEBEC, CANADA, NMAI ARCHIVES, N12205
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