Volume 4, 1951 - The Arctic Circle - Home

The primitive weapons of stone age man were adequate for his
needs and, \vhen game was available, he was able to secure
sufficient food and clothing. Because hunting was laborious
and the making of arrowheads and spear points difficult and
time-consuming, more game was rarely killed than was needed
for the hunter and his family. Although in the Arctic the
balance between natural increases and predation was often a
delicate one, the vicissitudes to which hunting tribes have
always been prone were, perhaps, more frequently caused by
changes in the migration routes of game animaIs than by excessive
predation. The introduction of firearms progressively
changed this picture and, as regards some large land animaIs,
there has been a rapid, and in some parts catastrophic,
decrease in numbers. Again, depending on differences in the
hysiography of the area, the impact of changed hunting methods
as affected different game animaIs in different ways. ln the
ften precarious existence of Eskimo and Indians, caribou have
lways been important. To some tribes caribou has aotually
een the "staff of life" and its disappearance has often meant
tarvation and death.
Estimates of animal populations are frequently subject
o errors of judgment and sorne early estimates of the numbers
f barren ground caribou should be accepted with reservation.
ie do know, however, from the accounts of early travellers
hat caribou were once plentiful from Bering Strait to the
coast of Labrador. We know, also, that at present caribou
re scarce or have altogether disappeared in muny areas where
hey were plentiful only a few decades ago. hlthough concern
ver this has long been felt in responsible quarters, no
anacea has ever been proposed. ln Alaska, and later in
anada, attempts have been made to introduce domesticated
eindeer to ease the drain on the wild caribou population or
to provide a substitute in places where caribou had already
disappeared. Thus far these experiments have met with only
artial or indifferent success, because reindeer nomadism
18 incompatible l'vithpresent trends of cultural development
and because the North American Arctic is too thinly populated
to provide a ready market for reindeer products. One of the
most constructive steps taken in Canada toward the preservation
of the remaining caribou herds has been the "caribou
survey" which for sorneyears has been conducted by'mammalogists
of the Canadian vHldlife Service (Banfield, 1950).
Thus far this survey has been concerned largely with the
continental parts of Keewatin and Mackenzie where very large
herds still existe It is hoped that, in addition to fairly
reliable estimates of the present caribou population, the
survey "viII determine the relation between natural annual
increases .and predation, for only when this has been done