Accustomed to spotting them in the immensity of the tundra, park warden Noah Annahatak was the first to see the few migrating caribou blending in with the rocky landscape of Parc national des Pingualuit, a crucial sector of the migratory route of these deer. “There are only three of them, but last week there were thousands of them here, with many young of the year,” he said, scanning the shores of Lake Manarsulik.
The traces of their recent passage are also visible everywhere in this park located in the heart of Nunavik, west of the village of Kangiqsujuaq. On this territory preserved from human activity, these caribou belonging to the Rivière aux Feuilles herd have literally traced hundreds of trails. They have also left clumps of their winter coat everywhere as they moult as they progress towards the northern end of Quebec. It must be said that this is the most abundant group in Quebec, with some 200,000 animals.
The three caribou (tuktuk in Inuktitut) seen by Noah Annahatak are however the first in sight after a few days of hiking in this park of just over 1000 km2. So he doesn’t want to miss his chance to shoot one down before they disappear behind a hill. The Inuit have the right to hunt on this territory frequented by their people for hundreds of years. “Our ancestors were already hunting here and we also hunt all year round. But usually, we prefer to choose the fall, when we can blow on the dandelions. This is when the skin is ideal for making mittens, coats or boots,” he explains.
This time when The duty accompanies him, this experienced hunter approaches a few tens of meters from the animals before killing a young male with a single bullet. Frightened for a few minutes by the noise, a female and her calf, who accompanied her, then gave us time to take a few photos before continuing on their way.
Noah is already busy cutting up his caribou, part of the meat of which will be consumed the same evening, including the heart and the liver. “We don’t waste anything from the animal”, he sums up, detaching the deer’s tongue with a skilful stab, before cutting off the legs and wrapping everything in the animal’s skin, to facilitate the transport of the quarters of meat.
He repeats this ritual several times a year, as do many Nunavik Inuit, who know very well the route taken by migratory caribou and the times of their passage. For centuries, their way of life has been intimately linked to that of these deer roaming the tundra and the taiga. But they now find that migrations seem increasingly disrupted, that the number of animals is declining and that their physical condition is deteriorating.
Threatened herds
There are two distinct herds of eastern migratory caribou in Quebec, the Rivière aux Feuilles herd and the Rivière George herd. In both cases, the data from the inventories carried out by the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks (MFFP) show declines that are worrying to say the least.
The George River herd even collapsed altogether, dropping from nearly 800,000 individuals in 1993 to around 8,000 in 2020, a 99% decline. In the case of the Leaf River caribou, the most recent inventory dates back to 2016 and reported a herd of approximately 200,000 caribou, according to data provided by the MFFP. It had 430,000 five years earlier. Even if the ministry now estimates that “the average population trend would be stable”, no inventory has been drawn up since 2016.
The increasingly critical situation of the species, distinct from populations of woodland caribou living further south in the province, led the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada to recommend in 2017 that the migratory caribou of the Is either classified as “endangered”. This is the most severe status in the Species at Risk Act.
However, the Canadian government has not yet decided whether it will act on this recommendation, which would involve protecting vast territories in northern Quebec in order to preserve the habitat essential to the recovery of the species. “Consultations” are still ongoing, says the Federal Ministry of the Environment. On the MFFP side, it is recalled that all hunting is prohibited for the George River herd, but also that “sport hunting” has been closed since 2018 for the Leaf River herd. For the moment, the Quebec government has still not included it on its “list of threatened or vulnerable species”.
However, the most recent scientific signals show that the situation of caribou is likely to worsen over the next few years. A reality that worries many Inuit encountered in Nunavik, since they consider this species to be vital to their traditional way of life, and therefore to their identity and culture.
According to the chapter on Quebec in the federal report “on regional perspectives” on climate change, published in August, the very rapid warming of northern regions directly threatens the species. “Rising temperatures have contributed to the survival of predators, the spread of disease, the instability of the ice as well as the reduction of lichens. These impacts seem to modify the seasonal migration patterns of the herds and accentuate the contraction of their range towards the north”, underline the scientists who wrote the document.
The situation is such that all suitable habitat could be gone by the end of the century. For Noah Annahatak, who learned to hunt when he was young and wants to pass this heritage on to his children, the prospect of seeing the tuktuk disappearing from the tundra is simply unimaginable. “I’d rather not think about it,” he drops thoughtfully.