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Barren Ground Caribou
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- Description
- Smaller than the woodland caribou and allied species, colours light, almost entirely white in winter. Antlers slender with comparatively few points.
- Range
- Barren Grounds of Arctic America.
- Range
- Greenland.
- Range
- Alaskan peninsula.
Size. Smaller than the preceding. Antlers longer, 50 inches.
Recent explorations in the Northwest have discovered a much greater variety of caribou than were formerly supposed to exist, in fact, no less than seven different kinds are now known to inhabit North America. It is impossible at present to determine the exact relationship between these animals until their range has been more carefully ascertained. It is quite likely that all may prove to be perfectly distinct species or some of them may be mere geographic races, shading imperceptibly one into the other. However this may be, the Barren Ground caribou, the smallest of the group, seems to be the most widely separated both in appearance and habits from woodland caribou of which we have just been treating. "Its range," writes Warburton Pike, "appears to be from the islands in the Arctic Sea to the southern part of Hudson's Bay, while the Mackenzie River is the limit of their western wandering. In the summer time they keep to the true Barren Grounds, but in the autumn, when their feeding-grounds are covered with snow, they seek the hanging moss in the woods. From what I could gather from the Indians, and from my own personal experience, it was late in October, immediately after the rutting season, that the great bands of caribou, commonly known as La Foule, mass up on the edge of the woods, and start for food and shelter afforded by the stronger growth of pines farther southward. A month afterward the males and females separate, the latter beginning to work their way north again as early as the end of February; they reach the edge of the woods in April, and drop their young far out toward the sea-coast in June, by which time the snow is melting rapidly and the ground showing in patches. The males stay in the woods till May and never reach the coast, but meet the females on their way inland at the end of July; from this time they stay together till the rutting season is over and it is time to seek the woods once more."
Of their curious migration he says, "They are extremely uncertain in their movements, seldom taking the same course in two consecutive years, . . . this is in a great measure accounted for by the fact that great stretches of the country have been burnt, and so rendered incapable of growing the lichen so dearly loved by these animals." In the fall of 1889 he personally encountered one of the migrations. "With the increasing depth of the snow there was a noticeable migration of life, from the Barren Grounds. Ptarmigan came literally in thousands, while the tracks of wolves, wolverines and Arctic foxes made a continuous network in the snow. Scattered bands of caribou were almost always in sight from the top of the ridge behind the camp and increased in numbers till the morning of October 20th, when we were awakened before daylight by the cry of "La foule," "La foule," and even in the lodge we could hear the curious clatter made by a band of travelling caribou. La Foule had really come and during its passage of six days I was able to realize what an extraordinary number of these animals still roam in the Barren Grounds. From the ridge we had a splendid view of the migration; all the south side of Mackay Lake was alive with moving beasts, while the ice seemed to be dotted all over with black islands, and still away on the north shore, with the aid of the glasses, we could see them coming like regiments on the march. In every direction we could hear the grunting noise that the caribou always make when travelling; the snow was broken into broad roads and I found it useless to try to estimate the number that passed within a few miles of our encampment. . . This passage of the caribou is the most remarkable thing that I have ever seen in the course of many expeditions among the big game of America. The buffalo were for the most part killed out before my time, but I cannot believe that the herds on the prairie ever surpassed in size La Foule of the caribou."
Varieties of Barren Ground Caribou
1. Barren Ground Caribou. Rangifer arcticus (Richardson). Description and range as above.
2. Greenland Caribou. Rangifer groenlandicus (Gmelin). Somewhat like the last, a white ring around the eye and very long slender antlers.
3. Grant's Caribou. Rangifer granti Allen. Represents the Barren Ground caribou in the extreme Northwest. Skull characters quite different.