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Dec. 19—One of the largest caribou herds in Alaska is shrinking, prompting hunters and conservationists to consider recommending hunting restrictions. The Western Arctic Caribou Herd population ...
Hunting and trapping for sale of skins, guiding hunters, or making traditional caribou skin masks or clothing provides income, though some residents have sought seasonal employment outside the town. Caribou is the primary source of meat, with other subsistence foods including trout, grayling, moose, sheep, brown bear, ptarmigan and water fowl.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game introduced approximately 23 caribou calves to the island in the late 1950s, in part to help prevent famine emergencies. [4] [5] Adak Island, with its now large caribou herd of approximately 1,000 animals, according to a 2019 and 2022 count, has become a popular hunting destination. [6] [7]
Changes in caribou migration can be problematic for Alaska Natives, who depend on caribou for food. [16] Caribou in Alaska are abundant; currently there are an estimated 950,000 in the state. [16] The populations of caribou are controlled by predators and hunters (who shoot about 22,000 caribou a year). [16]
The potential oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge threatens the Porcupine caribou herd's calving grounds, while climate change forces polar bears to change their hunting and denning patterns. Additionally, the unique marine ecosystem of the Arctic basin is being disturbed by industrial noise and oil exploration.
[17] [49] The caribou hunt occurred in the early summer and mid-summer. Caribou hunting during the fall migration involved the use of fence, corral, and snare complexes and was a seasonal activity critical to the survival of the Tanana people. [6] Today, most caribou meat is typically used fresh or frozen for later use. [17]
The Gwichʼin prefer to hunt Porcupine caribou or the barren-ground Blue Nose herd, who travel in large herds, when they are available. Many hunters claimed that woodland caribou that form very small groups, are wilder, both hard to see and hard to hunt. They are very smart, cunning, and elusive. [14]
Early Nunamiut lived by hunting caribou instead of the marine mammals and fish hunted by coastal Iñupiat. After 1850 the interior became depopulated because of diseases, the decline of the caribou and the migration to the coast (including the Mackenzie Delta area in Canada, where they are called Uummarmiut) where whaling and fox trapping provided a temporarily promising alternative.