Technology meets tradition: Aklavik woman bags 1st moose using smartphone app

A young woman from Aklavik, N.W.T., recently shot and butchered her first moose, and she did it with a little help from her smartphone.

Jessi Pascal says she's not much of a moose caller — she's watched her cousins do it but that's about it.

"So I downloaded an app on my phone and I brought my speakers and started playing moose-calling sounds," she said.

"I put the speaker in the back of my boat and just turned it right up."

Pascal, who was out hunting with a friend, drove her boat slowly down the river for about an hour, until suddenly a young bull moose and cow appeared.

Letting her friend take over the boat, Pascal approached the moose, continuing to let the calls play at a low volume. 

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"I aimed for the one that I had the most clear shot on," she said.

The sound of the shot ringing through the wilderness caught the attention of Pascal's cousins, who happened to be out that afternoon looking for moose too.

Pascal said she told her cousins she'd bagged the bull, but the cow had run back into the forest, so they went off to chase that animal.

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Then, she spent the next three and a half hours cutting the hide from her kill and hauling it to her boat.

"It was my first time butchering a moose all by myself without any professional help," said Pascal.  "It was pretty cool." 

She said it started raining just as she was finishing up, so she was glad she took the opportunity to go out hunting when she did. 

Moose meat giveaway

Even the fact that she had a gun to go hunting with was thanks to a lark — Pascal said she was coming back from a winter camp last year and had a layover in Yellowknife.

She had a bit of money, and thought about what she could do with it. She says she ended up at Canadian Tire, where she bought her first gun. It became a surprise gift for her father.

"He was really happy," said Pascal. "And this is the first time that an animal has been shot with it.

Pascal said that as far as being a female hunter goes, she's doing pretty good for herself — completing this hunt means she even beat her own father at shooting a moose and butchering it without help.

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Now, Pascal has put a call out on Facebook looking for people who want a share in her meat.

"I believe that is tradition, for the hunter to share meat from their first kill," she said.

"I'm going to be handing out meat once it's all done hanging — to elders and people who are like, single-parent families, and people who don't have the equipment to go hunting."

What's next for Pascal? She says rabbits will be out soon, so she thinks she might try her hand at hunting that next.