The attitude of unconcern has probably been developed in past
generations through the habit of the Caribou of traveling in vast
throngs. The threat of danger to a given individual in a herd of, say,
100,000 is practically negligible. From time immemorial the river
crossings have represented a particular point of attack on the part of
the natives. Yet when a large band of Caribou come to such a crossing,
they may plunge in with little pause or hesitation. On the other hand,
when a lone doe with her fawn approaches the river bank, she may be very
circumspect, taking time to look carefully upstream and down, and
across, before venturing into the water. I also saw another doe with a
fawn exercise similar precaution, when she was merely the first of a
band of 40 to reach the river’s edge. It is probably concern for her
fawn that renders a doe more circumspect than a buck.
When Fred Schweder, Jr., was endeavoring to intercept a Wolf on
September 6, a fullgrown buck came feeding around a tree within 10 feet
of him. The animal winded Fred without apparently seeing him, and went
back and forth uncertainly for about a minute; finally it moved off very
slowly.
Stefánsson’s account (1913b) of his various adventures with Caribou
near the Arctic coast of Mackenzie indicates a far wilder animal in that
region than the one in Keewatin. It appeared a great deal easier for me,
with no particular effort at caution, to get within photographic range
(say a dozen feet to 50 yards) than for him to approach within rifle
range (several hundred yards).
Even after being fired upon, a single animal or a band in the Nueltin
Lake region will rarely put distance between themselves and a hunter
with all possible dispatch, as an alert White-tailed Deer would, but
will run hither and thither in confusion, with frequent pauses to
display their befuddlement. On October 8 I was a distant and saddened
spectator of a scene of slaughter. A hundred or more Caribou were
resting or feeding quietly on a bare ridge south of Lake Charles. They
were distributed in a narrow formation, 75-100 yards long and from one
to several animals deep. A hunter, approaching close to the south end of
the herd, began firing. With one accord they made toward the north, but
very shortly executed a sharp turn and came back rapidly in the opposite
direction, passing in a narrow, compact column within 30 feet of the
hunter, who continued shooting. In 200 or 300 yards they paused and
allowed the hunter to come up with them and resume shooting. The process
was repeated over a distance of three miles; but the pursuer now and
then circled ahead of the herd instead of following in its tracks. The
final toll: 29 Caribou hit and 22 or 23 secured--virtually a quarter of
the herd destroyed and most of it to be used for dog feed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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