During the big movement of the last week of August, 1947, I may have
seen as many as 500 Caribou on one or two days, in herds numbering up to
150 individuals. A striking proportion of those observed seemed to occur
in bands of roughly 25 animals. On August 25 Fred Schweder, Jr.,
reported about a thousand crossing Little River, in bands of as many as
100 individuals. On October 11 Charles Schweder observed a thousand
Caribou resting on a hill 3 miles long in the vicinity of Four-hill
Creek. In November he found thousands, in herds up to 300 strong, moving
south from the upper Kazan River. These figures may give a faintly
approximate idea of the numbers occurring in the general region of
Nueltin Lake in a year considered less good than an average one. On the
other hand, toward the coast of Hudson Bay, there were reports of a
greater number of autumn migrants than in ordinary years.
In October, about 1944, tracks indicated that 2,000 or 3,000 animals had
crossed Windy River in the vicinity of Four-hill Creek in the night
(_fide_ Charles Schweder). About October 10, 1946 (a year of unusual
abundance), Fred Schweder, Jr., witnessed the passage of thousands in
one day in this vicinity; he got the impression of “the hills moving
with Deer.” (Yet this was the season when the Caribou passed mainly to
one side of the upper Kazan River, so that nearly one-third of the local
band of Eskimos starved to death.) In the first part of May, about 1942
or 1943, John Ingebrigtsen came to a nameless lake, about half a mile by
a mile and a half in extent, somewhere east of Duck Lake, Manitoba. It
appeared “absolutely full of Caribou,” and he estimated their number at
not less than 20,000. This would mean a density of no more than about 50
per acre.
_References._--Jones, 1899: 368, 374; J. B. Tyrrell, 1894: 442,
and 1897: 10, 49-50, 165; Whitney, 1896: 240; Seton, 1911: 220,
258-260; R. M. Anderson, 1913b: 502; Hornaday, 1914, +2+:
225-226; Nelson, 1916: 460; Thompson, 1916: 100-101; Kindle,
1917: 108-109; Buchanan, 1920: 130-131; Hewitt, 1921: 56, 64-66;
Stefánsson, 1921: 255; R. M. Anderson, 1924: 329; Blanchet,
1926b: 48, and 1930: 52; Kindle, 1928: 72-73; Seton, 1929,
+3+: 131-134; Critchell-Bullock, 1930: 159-160; R. M. Anderson,
in Hoare, 1930: 52-53; Kitto, 1930: 87; Jacobi, 1931: 201-202;
Munn, 1932: 58; Birket-Smith, 1933: 89; Ingstad, 1933: 160;
R. M. Anderson, 1938: 400; Clarke, 1940: 65, 84-91, 101-104;
Downes, 1943: 258-260; Wright, 1944: 185-188, 191, 193; Yule,
1948: 287-288; Banfield, 1949: 478, 481, and 1951a: 9, 13-14;
Harper, 1949: 231, 239; Anonymous, 1952: 261; Barnett, 1954: 96.
GENERAL HABITS
_Daily periods of activity and rest_
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