The Barren Ground Caribou of Keewatin

by Francis Harper

In late November Fred found two fullgrown bucks and a doe on the ice of Windy Lake, where they had been killed by Wolves. The bucks were antlered and had probably met their end several weeks previously. Yet their flesh was so musky and unpalatable, in consequence of the rutting season, that it had not been devoured. A long trail of blood and hair led to the spot where the doe had fallen, apparently a couple of weeks previously; it was still only half eaten.

In Fred’s opinion, Caribou are apprehensive of sandy eskers as the haunt of Wolves, and do not linger there.

On October 15 Charles Schweder pointed out the body of a Caribou in a little pond in the delta area at the head of Simons’ Lake. He considered it killed by Wolves some weeks previously; its antlers were in the velvet, and it had been eaten only about the head and hind quarters as it lay in the water.

Joe Chambers, a trapper of Goose Creek (south of Churchill), stated that Wolves select the fattest Caribou, and that during the winter of 1946-47 they had been devouring only such choice parts as the tongue and the unborn young.

Caribou bodies are the primary bait for Wolves and Foxes on the Barren Grounds. Two traps are commonly placed at each carcass.

Up to a couple of centuries ago, when the baneful effect of civilized man began to be felt, the Caribou throve and multiplied to a point where they probably strained the grazing capacity of the Barren Grounds. Neither primitive man nor the Wolf had any serious effect on the size or condition of the herds. The Caribou were numbered by millions, and they doubtless owed their vigor and their success as a species in no small measure to their friendly enemy, the Wolf. Through long ages the latter had tended to eliminate the weaklings, the sickly, and the less alert individuals, leaving the fitter animals to propagate their kind. Here was a fine example of natural selection operating to the advantage of the Caribou. Thus the Wolf may be safely considered a benefactor of the species as a whole—a regulator and protector of its vitality.

There are only two regions of the world where Caribou (or Reindeer) have not long shared their territory with the Wolf—Spitsbergen and the Queen Charlotte Islands. And what sort of situation do we find there? Instead of thriving in the absence of such a natural predator, the animals of both regions are the runts of the whole Caribou-Reindeer tribe, and those of the Queen Charlottes have become virtually or wholly extinct (cf. Banfield, 1949: 481-482). Furthermore, the Newfoundland Caribou suffered a very serious decline after the Newfoundland Wolf became extinct at about the beginning of the present century. The lesson is obvious: it is folly for man to imagine that he can benefit the Caribou by eliminating the Wolves.

It is virtually axiomatic that no predatory species (other than modern man) exterminates its own food supply. Long ago nature must have established a fairly definite ratio between the populations of the Wolf and the Caribou. Although a certain fluctuation of that ratio could be expected from time to time, each fluctuation would be followed by a return to more or less normal conditions. The trend of evolution has doubtless been toward perfecting the Wolf in its ability to capture the Caribou, but at the same time toward perfecting the Caribou in its ability to escape the Wolf. Unequal progress of this sort on the part of the two species would presumably have been rather disastrous to the one or the other. But it is nature’s way to have preserved a proper balance between the abilities of the two species, and thus between their populations. This balance (a rather delicate one) has probably been upset to some extent by the advent of civilized man with his devices to the Barren Grounds.

The Caribou “exemplify the survival of the fittest; none but the perfect are allowed to live and breed, hence their perfection. We believe that the wolf is in no small degree responsible for this high standard, and that were he killed off the species as a whole would suffer.” (Critchell-Bullock, 1930: 161.)

“It is doubtful if the efforts of white or native hunters are of any importance whatever in the control of wolves in the caribou country, or could, under present circumstances ever be of any importance.” (Clarke, 1940: 109).