Dwindling caribou numbers prompt call for changes to hunting practices

A caribou management board is recommending changes to hunting practices to address a dramatic decline in the numbers of the animals.

According to the Beverly and Qamanirjuag Caribou Management Board, the population of one herd, with a range that includes northern Saskatchewan, has fallen from more than 250,000 animals in a 1994 estimate to a mere 10,000 today.

"It's getting harder and harder to access caribou because the herds are declining," Earl Evans, a hunter and board member from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, told CBC News. "They're harder to find, there's less around, and a guy's got to hunt harder to get any animals."

During meetings this week in Prince Albert, Sask., board members discussed ways to address the dwindling numbers.

The delegates also examined issues behind the decline and how to educate caribou hunters on sound wildlife management practices.

"We have to police ourselves on this, and we have to set a good example for the other people out there," said Evans after the meetings.

As an example, Evans cited the problem of wasting meat.

"We're supposed to be keepers of the land, and when we take an animal, we're supposed to take everything that we can," he said.

Ross Thompson, the management board's secretary-treasurer, said the group also wants hunters to focus on bull caribou, leaving the females to have more calves.

Thompson, who is from Stonewall, Man., said the board also wants to share information with northerners about the Beverly herd.

"So … they can be aware of what's going on with the herd and get dialogue going about those factors that can be managed," he said.