On the dark and drizzly morning of August 24 (temp. 47°-48°) I noticed a
number of Caribou, in groups of 2 to 20, traveling northwestward along
Middle and Little River ridges. This indication of general activity
enticed me to the top of the latter, whence I had a view of perhaps 8 or
10 animals scattered over the Barrens beyond Little River. Several were
lying down just beyond the summit of a ridge between the river and
Glacier Pond, so that little more than their antlers was visible. With
the idea of finding out how closely I could approach these resting
animals, I waded knee-deep across a rapid about 100 feet in width, and
worked my way up the opposite slope until I once more caught sight of
the tips of several antlers. Under cover of a rock and some dwarf
birches, I crept ahead on hands and knees, with a miniature camera at
the ready. I had arrived within 50 yards when the nearest buck got to
its feet and stood looking at me. In hopes of photographing the rest
while they were still lying down, I rose to my knees and hastily exposed
the last bit of film in the camera. Still there was no immediate
reaction on the part of the Caribou. Fortunately there was a cross wind.
The first buck was so little alarmed that it leisurely sprinkled the
ground. But presently it turned and walked off, presumably giving some
signal of voice or posture (such as an erect tail) to the rest; for they
got to their feet, not the half a dozen I expected, but half a hundred
of them! Though they trotted off toward Windy Bay, they paused within a
hundred yards and turned to stare at me. Several more relieved
themselves as the first buck had done. By this time I saw that some of
the Caribou, including a little fawn, were carrying their tails quite
erect, as an expression of suspicion or a signal of alarm. Evidently a
majority of the band were bucks, but there were some does, with
foot-long horns, and their fawns. On my way back to camp I noticed
several groups of Caribou swimming across Windy Bay; perhaps they
included the very animals I had so recently disturbed.
In the early afternoon it became evident that a further northwesterly
movement was under way along the ridges between camp and Little River.
The animals had doubtless made the passage of the river near its mouth.
I followed some of them to a bog at the upper end of Little River Ridge,
where I began to film several bucks and a lone, inquisitive, one-horned
doe. While the latter was approaching me within a hundred feet, I caught
a movement out of the corner of my eye, and all at once the bog seemed
full of Caribou. There were 75-100 of them, chiefly bucks, and not more
than 50 yards or so distant across the open bog. They presently moved
on, without haste, and ascended the Middle Ridge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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