It is said that the attachment between a doe and its fawn is such that
when one of them is killed, the hunter can approach within 50 feet of
the surviving doe or within 20 feet of the surviving fawn. A fawn is apt
to linger for days in the vicinity where its dam has been killed.
Charles Schweder has never seen fawns playing with each other or with
their mothers; two or three times he has seen one frisking by
itself--such as jumping about or running in a circle--but never for more
than half a minute at a time. Seriousness of life for a Caribou seems
confirmed from its infancy.
In the hard winter of 1944-45, when the Caribou were tired and hungry,
Charles had the rare experience of driving his dogteam right through
herds on Nueltin Lake; the animals merely moved aside enough to let him
pass. In like vein Joe Chambers spoke of encountering such numbers of
migrating Caribou on or near the “Little Barrens” south of Churchill in
the spring of 1947 that his dogs “went wild” and he had to halt for a
time; the animals came within about 100 yards of his team.
A Caribou bold enough to attack a man is very rarely heard of. Yet that
was the experience of 15-year-old Anoteelik on September 8. Having run
out of ammunition, he undertook to kill a 2-year-old buck with a rock in
a patch of timber. (Possibly the animal had already been wounded with
Anoteelik’s .22 rifle.) When the missile failed of its mark, the buck
made for the boy, who escaped by climbing a tree. Perhaps this is the
first case on record of a man or a boy (especially an Eskimo!) being
treed by a Barren Ground Caribou. Jenness mentions (1922: 150) a case of
an Eskimo being fatally gored by a Caribou on Victoria Island.
Otherwise, under all general circumstances, and in contradistinction to
the Bison, the Muskox, the Moose, and even the White-tailed Deer, the
Caribou may be regarded as quite innocuous to man.
The restlessness so frequently exhibited by Caribou during the summer,
in trotting rapidly over the Barrens or in feeding hurriedly here and
there while constantly forging ahead (in contrast to the placidity of
grazing sheep and cattle), may be attributed in large part to the
relentless scourge of fly pests.
(See also _Relations to man_.)
_References._--Lyon, 1824: 336-337; J. McLean, 1932 (1849): 359;
Simpson, 1843: 207; Armstrong, 1857: 478-479, 481-482; Gilder,
1881: 78; Schwatka, 1885: 85; Pike, 1917 (1892): 51-52, 90;
Whitney, 1896: 242; Hanbury, 1904: 85; Amundsen, 1908, +1+: 103;
Stefánsson, 1913b: 278, and 1921: 251; Hornaday, 1914, +2+:
104; Jenness, 1922: 150; Blanchet, 1925: 34; Birket-Smith, 1929
(1): 106; Seton, 1929, +3+: 105-107; Jacobi, 1931: 219, 220;
Ingstad, 1933: 88, 293, 297; Downes, 1943: 236-237; Porsild,
1943: 389; Harper, 1949: 229-230; Banfield, 1951a: 22.
_Senses_
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