Most caribou winter in forested areas, where they escape the deep snow and blowing winds of the tundra. Caribou are able to locate forage grasses, sedges, and lichens under snow, apparently by their ability to smell it.
To reach the forage they use their front paws to dig craters. Dominant caribou frequently take over craters dug by less dominant animals. Caribou communicate among themselves through vocal, visual, chemical, and tactile cues. They have a keen sense of smell, which allows them to find food buried deep under snow.
Caribou are mainly grazing herbivores. Their diet varies depending on the season. In summer they eat the leaves of willows and birches, mushrooms, cotton grass, sedges, and other ground dwelling kinds of vegetation. In the winter lichens are an important food source, although they continue to eat whatever vegetation is available. Calves are vulnerable to predation by bears, wolves, and other predators during their first week of life.
Healthy adult caribou are less susceptible to predation until old age and illness weakens them. By traveling in herds, caribou increase the number of individuals that can watch for predators. Through their foraging activities, caribou have a dramatic impact on communities of vegetation throughout their range.
They are also important prey species for large predators, such as bears and wolves, especially during the calving season. Caribou have been used extensively for their meat, fur and antlers. Reindeer, the domesticated subspecies of caribou, have been herded throughout their range for thousands of years. Although Alaska, with its more than 30 herds, has nearly double the number of caribou 1,, than people, caribou in the lower 48 United States are considered endangered.
Caribou in Alaska are of the barren-ground subspecies, whereas living in Washington and Idaho and extinct Maine herds are of the woodland subspecies. They are listed as Endangered under the Endangered Species Act in these regions. Loss of habitat, overhunting, and other factors has contributed to the precarious position of woodland caribou in the United States. Worldwide, the caribou population is estimated to be around 5 million. The largest herds now occur in Alaska, Canada, and Russia.
Humans have heavily hunted this species. They have been extinct in most parts of Europe since at least the s. Exploration for oil and minerals in Canada may threaten woodland caribou habitat. High Arctic caribou populations are also thought to be vulnerable.
Despite their status in the wild, domestic herds of reindeer flourish in the Old World, in Canada, in Alaska, and in the lower 48 states including Michigan. Caribou, and their domestic counterparts - reindeer, have been very important in the cultures of native peoples througout the arctic. Caribou have wide, fur covered feet that help them stay warm and move through diverse terrain.
The hooves have a hollow like shape right at the bottom with sharp edges. These characteristic allow their hooves to act as snowshoes during the winter. Interestingly, the shape of the hooves are also great for travelling through water like paddles. Male — description: Male caribou also referred to as bulls are about kg.
An easy way to tell the difference between females and males is by the size of the antlers; male caribou have larger antlers. Bulls also have larger white spots around their necks—especially leading up to mating season when the male neck becomes bigger to prepare for ruts see mating section.
Female — description: Female caribou also referred to as cows are under kg. They have straighter antlers that don't curve and branch as much. Cows also retain their antlers through the winter until they give birth, making it easier to forage for food. Antlers: Caribou antlers are very large.
They grow on the male and female, the antlers of male caribou are larger. Each year in March, the antlers start to grow but are covered in a special fuzzy skin called velvet. Stone piles were built to frighten the animals to cross the rivers at specific locations where men waited in canoes to ambush the animals. Fences with traps and surrounds were also used for communal hunting in open spaces []. Snow pits baited with urine were arranged to catch caribou in the winter.
Caribou were killed easily, which made hunting trips to grazing grounds worthwhile. Many cultures such as the Shuswap, Kootenai, Tahltan, Inuit and Cree used the bow and arrow [6, 58, 61, 75, , , , , ]. The Tahltan made arrows with detachable arrowheads that remained lodged in the target creating more serious wounds which resulted in swifter kills [75]. Netsilik Inuit used the bow and arrow a great deal to slow the animal down so that the hunter could get close enough to make the final kill with a spear or knife.
The bows were made from antlers and horns [6, ]. The Mistissini made bows with a piece of wood and twisted caribou hide for the string; arrows were made from birchwood with bone or metal tips [].
The Kootenai, Plains Ojibwa Chippewa , Chipewyan and Mistissini Cree used bows and arrows almost exclusively until guns became available [58, , , ], which soon became the principal weapon used to kill caribou [85].
In fact, most hunting strategies became obsolete after rifles were introduced [9, 60, 75, , ]. Some cultures, however, preferred to continue using arrows and save ammunition for more difficult targets [, ].
Cultures including Slave Sahtu , Dogrib and Dorset Inuit, mainly used lances, spears and harpoons [64, ]. The Vanta Kutchin made short caribou antler spears, so they did not break or bend and could be pulled out easily.
Spears were also made from caribou long bones; however they tended to break and split more often [34]. Traps were often used in summer, but could be used any time of the year. The Mountain People Dene used brush fence traps while most other cultures used snares made of babiche twisted rawhide that were tied at the four corners to poles or trees [28, 34, 37].
Snares were set in the forest areas between trees, usually when herds were not migrating [43, ]. The Kalispel, Peel River Kutchin, Inuit including Iglulik and Micmac often stalked caribou when the concentration of animals was low or when herds broke up into smaller groups [43, 60, , , , ].
Stalking was practiced in small groups or alone mostly in winter; however, the Thule are reported to have trapped and snared caribou throughout the year [, ]. These methods were sometimes more efficient than communal hunts because the meat was divided into larger portions []. Stalking in winter could take place without much effort; the Sekani, Tahltan, Loucheux, Netsilik Inuit, Northern Ojibwa and Mistissini Cree swiftly killed caribou in deep snow [6, 37, 53, 75, 76, , ].
Netsilik Inuit also dug pits placing sharp objects at the bottom that injured caribou when they fell in. An occasionally dangerous winter hunting method was to lure caribou onto thin ice where they would fall through and drown [6]. Hunters tracked the animals on snowshoes with sleds, making travel quite swift and often constructed makeshift traps in the snow [, ]. In cold weather snares were set up in a line to trap any caribou passing by [34].
Inuit stalked caribou in summer when herds were dispersed [26]. To track caribou, Inuit searched for arctic fox urine in the snow, which could indicate buried caribou meat. They also followed fox tracks to freshly killed meat []. Some cultures used other unique techniques to attract caribou. During mating season, caribou were lured with a horn or by rubbing a shoulder bone against a tree.
A decoy, such as a head, was often used [33, ]. The Crow River Kutchin stuffed a caribou head with moss, mounted it on a stick, and walked with it in front of their faces to attract caribou in winter [43]. Similarly, Netsilik Inuit, Loucheux and Chipewyan attracted caribou by imitating them, holding up antlers and grunting during rutting season [6, 53, ]. Many caribou populations are reported to have been close to extinction at the turn of the twentieth century [].
The migrations used to be regular, and the Inuit could depend on the caribou for a reliable resource until the early twentieth century when the numbers began to decline and then in they disappeared entirely. The reduction of numbers can be attributed to over hunting with the used of repeating revolvers though government hunting regulations saw the return of caribou in the s [24, ]. The introduction of guns was reported to have resulted in an expanded hunting season for some Inuit, from what was once a seasonal activity to what became a year-round activity [].
Caribou remained numerous in the Porcupine River region of North Yukon throughout the twentieth century when other caribou herds declined drastically in numbers [89, , ].
Cultures such as Dene and Inuit continued to consider caribou an important animal and hunting continued to be important for nutrition as well as maintaining a certain level of social ties [6]. However, caribou hunting was no longer a communal activity [6, 16]and collective hunting methods shifted to individual and family trapping [6, 14]. The method of driving herds was replaced with the use of motorboats, rifles and chartered flights. Snowmobiles replaced dogsleds.
Although provincial hunting regulations varied greatly, Indigenous Peoples were generally free to hunt caribou for their own purposes and sell a small amount of meat [11]. Nevertheless, for the Nuiqsut Inupiat, Caribou Inuit, Chipewyan and others, regulations meant a dramatic change in their way of life [16, 73].
Many cultures were obligated to move to the coast to secure reliable sources of food. Even among the Hare Sahtu who were still capable of acquiring enough caribou to supply their annual needs, their traditions became more individualistic or family centered instead of community oriented [16, 36, 56, 74]. With the establishment of permanent settlements and the decline of caribou, cultures including Inuit, Dogrib, Cree and Montagnais reportedly began to limit hunting to winter, supplementing the diet with store-bought foods, despite the high regard for caribou meat [7, 14, , 85].
In recent times, Inuit living in the Cumberland Sound subsisted mainly on marine mammals. Before the introduction of snowmobiles and permanent housing, they moved inland each summer to secure enough caribou skins for winter clothing. Some spent most of the year inland living on caribou as well. When repeating rifles became available, caribou were an important addition to their diet until the s when caribou seemed to have disappeared from the region.
By the end of the twentieth century local caribou population recovered slightly []. Some modern hunters were reluctant to hunt caribou because of the time and difficulty required; however those that hunted were extremely proud men [56]. Traditionally, the Naskapi Innu relied on caribou for sustenance; however, they shifted to using more marine food sources [30, 82].
The wide availability of guns is thought to have contributed to the decline in numbers of several herds []. With the advent of guns, cultures such as the Tahltan were able to acquire more caribou, contributing to their economy [75]; however, the availability of guns was ultimately thought to facilitate decline in caribou numbers in many regions through greater ease of killing and consequent waste because the tradition of using all parts of the animal was not adhered to [11, 16, 41, 44].
The Naskapi of Labrador were forced to move to the coast to obtain other resources after caribou numbers declined in ; however their focus remained on caribou hunting for half the year []. Cultures that did not have access to other resources were forced to adapt or to move.
When cultures who depended on migratory caribou did not succeed in obtaining enough caribou, they broke-up into small family groups to hunt smaller animals in the forest for sustenance [, ]; the cultures that did not have access to forests were more susceptible to periods of starvation [6, 13, 19, ].
Hunting regulations brought a revival of caribou populations in the s and s; however, there have been subsequent declines [16].
Declining caribou numbers are also attributed to changes in the natural habitat as a result of pipelines, drilling, air traffic and building construction [11]. Due to the decrease in caribou, many cultures adapted, learning to depend less on this resource [56].
The Cree, who relied on caribou meat, were severely impactedand this decreased availability coincided with a Cree health epidemic [80, 81, 83]. Although the caribou made a recovery in the mid s, the Cree had become fairly dependent on store-bought foods, sedentary lifestyles, and wage paying jobs, which left little time for caribou hunting. New hunting technologies and transport made hunting more productive in the s; however, many young people were had become less accustomed to caribou meat and preferred store-bought foods.
By caribou meat comprised only 5 percent of the total country food consumed by the Cree [80, 81]. Given the size of the animal, caribou were a challenge to carry back to camp; this was particularly the case when several were killed at once or a hunter was alone.
Sometimes the hunter would eat some meat immediately, carry the best parts home and send his wife or other community members to collect the rest [53, ]. Although women were normally responsible for cooking and preserving meat, both men and women stripped and partitioned the caribou, depending on where the animal had been killed. The carcasses were almost always skinned and cut into smaller pieces immediately so that they could be packaged and carried back to camp or cached. To avoid the problem of hauling a large animal back to camp, the Vunta Kutchin at Old Crow often waited until all animals were upstream from the village, so that transportation of the killed animals would be easy by boat [20].
Alternatively, Vunta Kutchin and Chandalar Kutchin would set up meat camps at the site of a kill where the hunting party would process the skins, dry, and package the meat. However, these camps gradually disappeared with the increase of permanent settlements [9, 20]. Several storage methods were used to prevent animals from attacking caches of fresh or dried meat.
The Carrier stored dried meat in wooden boxes sealed with bear fat []. The Han stored the meat in a tree []. Fresh meat was stored in semi-frozen ground by Chandalar Kutchin if the weather was cold [9]. Other methods were also used; pits were dug and covered with rocks, open platforms several meters off the ground were built, log boxes were used, and when axes were available mini log houses on stilts were made to store dried meat [9, 15, 20].
Inuit submerged carcasses in shallow ponds when the weather was sufficiently cold to form a thin layer of ice [1]. The Beothuk stored excess dried and smoked meat in storehouses, pits and bark packets [].
Caribou flesh and parts were consumed in a variety of ways: boiled, roasted, raw, frozen or dried [15, 20, 39, 43, 85, 95, , ], with boiling and roasting the most common. To boil the flesh, hot stones were often added to a water-filled wood vessel, caribou stomach, or pit lined with caribou skin [15, 60].
Netsilik Inuit and Chukchi frequently ate raw meat and sometimes dipped it into oil before consumption [6, ]. Inuit ate mostly raw meat [], preferring it slightly fermented, but occasionally roasted or boiled it as well [24]. Communities would sometimes have a feast on the raw meat of a freshly killed caribou []. The animal would be brought to the centre of the lodge and guests would sit on the floor around it.
The host would skin the carcass and the hide would be spread on the floor to act as a dish or reservoir for the blood. The guests, all armed with knives, would help themselves to the meat until only skin and skeleton remained. The blood, a delicacy, was scooped with horn spoons or skin cups and eaten with the flesh []. In contrast, other cultures such as Peel River Kutchin and Cree never ate raw caribou meat [43, ]. Preserving caribou when it was abundant was important for survival during leaner times.
Since caribou ate mostly lichens, the meat was very lean []. Drying was a common method as well-dried meat could be stored for long periods of time.
Drying and storing meat was an extensive lengthy process, which had to be completed before the group migrated to another location or changed camps.
The Kutchin prepared the flesh by removing the head, slicing the animal along the abdomen and peeling off the skin, which was used as a blanket for butchering the meat in addition to retaining the blood.
Layers of muscle were sliced off in thin strips and hung to dry. The stomach, intestines and heart were emptied, turned inside out, and dried. The long bones were retained for their fat, while the head, legs and liver were consumed without delay. The tenderloin was considered the best piece of meat to be dried [9, 20, 43].
Drying the meat often involved smoking. The Dogrib and Vanta Kutchin built racks to dry meat for several days over a smoky fire of rotten spruce wood.
The strips were laid over the racks and turned often. This was usually done outside but could be done indoors over a stove [20, 85]. The Upper Tanana did not intentionally smoke meat, but built smoky fires from rotten wood near drying meat to stop insects from getting to it [15]. The Chipewyan sliced the meat off the bones then hung it to dry in log cabins and then smoked it in tents [].
The Micmac smoked slabs of meat for days over a smoky fire of rotten wood, sometimes subsequently drying the meat in the sun. Excess humidity was removed by walking over pieces of meat sandwiched between canvas sheets [, ]. The Mistissini had communal drying houses where everyone hung meat to dry, pounding it at regular intervals for about six days to remove excess humidity [].
The Kutchin served this at potlatches [43, 56]. The Cree used dried fish and caribou fat to make pemmican [30]. Dried meat was also soaked and boiled to make a stew by the Vunta Kutchin and Dogrib [20, 85]. Many communities ate most caribou meat in the form of pemmican; however when government freezers and modern conveniences were available pemmican use became less common [56].
The Penobscot who traditionally ate pemmican, began eating caribou roasted, stewed and pan fried [45]. Almost all parts of the caribou were consumed including flesh, marrow, blood, nose, lungs, brain, head, ribs, cartilage, kidney, eyes, pancreas, antler velvet, embryo, stomach, and stomach contents [6, 15, 20, 25, 27, 43, 69, , , , ].
Caribou head, fermented contents of the stomach, and droppings made into a soup were considered delicacies [24]. Several groups, of which Copper Inuit are one, ate caribou droppings. Netsilik and Iglulik Inuit ate droppings with blubber []. The tongue was especially considered a delicacy by Hare, Chipewyan and Kutchin, among others [6, 11, 53, 56, 60, , , ]. The Kutchin usually boiled or roasted the tongue, but it could also be dried [43].
Ribs were also highly favored by Kutchin and were typically roasted; they also quartered the head and boiled it with the kidneys or roasted it [20, 43].
The nose, tongue, kidneys and eyes were considered delicacies by the Yukon Flats Kutchin [43]. Elderly Kutchin and Upper Tanana enjoyed eating caribou fetus which was generally boiled [15, 43]. The head was considered the best part of the caribou by the Upper Tanana; however women were prohibited from eating it unless they were elderly [15].
Velvet-covered antlers were normally roasted by Yukon cultures until the velvet was charred and could be peeled off, revealing the crunchy skin inside which was said to resemble bacon [15, 34, ]. Hare and Inuit reportedly boiled caribou head for several hours and served it at feasts. The Hare considered the tongue, brains, mammary glands of new mothers and fetuses to be delicacies; the Chipewyan preferred the back fat, muzzle, tongue and warble fly larvae living under the skin [33, 56].
Inuit fermented the liver in a caribou stomach under hot sun for several days [24, 43]. The ends of the bones were reportedly also eaten. The Mistissini ate all parts of the caribou except the eyes and the contents of the intestines; their favorite parts were the fetus and the stomach []. The Micmac boiled all the internal organs before eating them and roasted caribou head on a spit [].
Many consumed stomach and intestines. The Peel River Kutchin, Chipewyan, Netsilik Inuit and Mistissini reportedly ate the fermented stomach contents, which provided vegetable matter often absent in the diet [6, 33, 43, 95, ].
The Upper Tanana emptied the stomach, sliced it into thin strips, and dried the strips with the half digested food still attached. These dried stomach strips were used to flavor boiled meat. They also stuffed the stomach with dried meat and steamed it [15]. The Hare cooked the intestines and its contents: the contents were fed to the dogs and the intestines were washed and consumed by the community [56].
Boiled or stuffed caribou intestines were popular with the Bush Cree and Peel River Kutchin [24, 43]. The Mistissini stuffed intestines with fresh meat and other ingredients before they cooked it []. The Micmac turned the intestines inside out and dried them before eating []. The marrow and fat were commonly consumed.
Inuit and Cree ate marrow from caribou bones, which were saved, cracked and boiled to make tallow [, ]. The oil remaining after the bones were boiled was collected and solidified into a lard cake that could be packaged and stored for later use [15, 20, 69, , , ].
The Dogrib used fresh marrow as a type of butter or they rendered and conserved it. They preserved the tallow by cutting it into cubes and skewering the cubes on sticks, allowing them to dry and harden. Dried tallow was powdered and boiled with water [85, ]. The Hudson Strait Inuit are reported to have held rendered caribou fat in high regard []. The Upper Tanana conserved fat in stomachs while the Carrier stored it in intestines, which they used as travel rations when on hunting trips [15, ].
Iglulik Inuit rendered the fat and kept the bladder to be consumed at special feasts in winter []. The Micmac ate the marrow immediately after a kill: they cracked the bones, roasted them over a fire and then sucked out the marrow []. Broth and soup were common preparations. Caribou broth was made from boiling bones after the tallow was removed [, , ]. When food sources were low, even the dried tendons and hooves were used to make broth [9, 69]. The Old Crow Kutchin ate the raw leg sinews [20].
Caribou droppings were used to make soup by the Chipewyan who considered this dish a delicacy [, ]. Caribou blood was made into soup or drunk fresh [9, 20, 56, ]. The Mistissini and Yukon cultures collected caribou blood by pouring it into caribou stomachs, which were hung, or by pouring it into pans to dry [, ]. Caribou Inuit ate blood soup with meat added and they also consumed the eyes []. Copper Inuit ate warm blood soup in summer and fed the kidneys to their dogs [].
Labrador and Netsilik Inuit mixed caribou blood with caribou stomach contents to make a soup []. The Cree held feasts and rituals, which involved drinking a caribou blood mixture made with the contents of the caribou stomach, or drinking the broth from the boiled cracked long bones.
Many people ate and shared these drinks [76]. More recently, First Nations incorporated caribou meat into modern foods, often replacing beef in recipes []. Caribou meat was sometimes boiled with salt, vegetables, and rice or macaroni. Caribou blood was boiled with fat and mixed with flour [].
By the s the Old Crow Kutchin reportedly no longer ate the fermented contents of the caribou stomach [20]. As herbivores, caribou have relatively low concentrations of contaminants compared to marine mammals [47]. For example, although caribou eat lichens that absorb cesium deposited from radioactive fallout and pollution from radioactivity has dramatically increased in some parts of the North, the levels contained in caribou meat are not high enough to pose a health hazard [].
Caribou also provided shelter, bedding, tools and clothing [33, 85, ]. Caribou hides were used by community members, given as gifts or used as barter with other cultures [20, 98]. To prepare the hide by drying and smoking, women first scraped off flesh, blood and hair [56, , ]. A brain or marrow mixture was sometimes used to tan the hides; in later years, the traditional mixture was often replaced with a modern soap mix [56, 85, ]. The hides made excellent bedding and clothing trousers, shirts, mittens, summer garments and spring coats, which could be altered by adding hoods for winter [3, 20, 43, 53, 97, ].
Coastal Inuit went on short hunting trips at the end of summer to secure enough hides to make clothing and blankets for winter []. For Netsilik Inuit, approximately 30 hides were required to supply all the clothing, outerwear, and bedding requirements for one family for a single year [6, ]. Access to food during the snowy winter can lead to rivalry between caribous, which could be why all individuals are equipped with antlers.
Caribous also feed on lots of fungi and mosses in the wintertime. Caribous that reside in captivity -- think zoos -- often consume herbivorous blends that come in pellet form.
They also frequently dine on alfalfa hay and grains that are designed for reindeer consumption. By using the site, you agree to the uses of cookies and other technology as outlined in our Policy, and to our Terms of Use.
Caribou Basic Information As far as the deer world goes, caribous are mid-sized creatures. Summer Diet Caribous are, for the most part, grazers.
0コメント