Western Arctic Caribou herd has dropped in 2022

[VernAK]

With our new Congresswoman and the current Secretary of the Interior, I don't hold much hope for several of our hunts.

 

[Sourdough]

Another thing to think about reference Caribou. How many on this forum vividly remember living in Alaska, hunting and/or guiding hunters for Caribou when......??

On April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine exploded, causing the worst nuclear accident the world has seen. It sent a plume into the atmosphere with radioactive fallout that was 400 times greater than that released in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The plume drifted across much of the western Soviet Union. Parts of Eastern, Northern and Western Europe were also affected.
(And Alaska. The fallout lands on the Caribou's primary diet. They are currently deciding on an appropriate level of nuclear exchange)

 

[theasj51797]

Looks like I'm back to considering Greenland. Muskox combo maybe.

Give Bjorn at the icelandic hunting club a call, I have a musk ox and caribou combo booked this coming september and I have heard nothing but great reviews of their operation

 

[mt terry d]

A couple questions: Is this partially a result of the cycle of overpopulation/over grazing/massive die offs/ habitat recovery/repopulation? Also, the comment that "caribou bulls in rut are inedible". When did that become a thing?

 

[medvedyt]

A couple questions: Is this partially a result of the cycle of overpopulation/over grazing/massive die offs/ habitat recovery/repopulation? Also, the comment that "caribou bulls in rut are inedible". When did that become a thing?

i do not know your experience about hunting caribou during the rut but if you ever tried one you will understand your own question ... they re drinking and rolling in their own pee while not eating thus the smell on the outside and of course internally including the whole having that smell ... neve seen dogs able to eat it as well when i was guiding in northern quebec in some cree locations ...
i ve heard that some alaskans are letting the caribou meat from a rutty staying the night in milk but with the cost of milk today im not the trying that ... as many locals here in the yukon im not taking them in the rut but you re more than welcome to do so and bring back the meat with you ....

 

[mt terry d]

Thanks for the info.
I've only shot one caribou and that was in early September. It just seems odd to me because bull elk piss all over themselves and stink to high heaven when they're rutting. Ive killed a half dozen in the rut and all were excellent eating except for one hind quarter that I'd contaminated by not cleaning the knife off after cutting up the belly hide. ( The only elk I gutted ). All the others I made a point to skin out the belly hide , toss it far away, then use a different knife to continue quartering/butchering. That bad quarter was inedible, not even suitable for sausage. BTW, when does the caribou rut start?

 

[medvedyt]

Thanks for the info.
I've only shot one caribou and that was in early September. It just seems odd to me because bull elk piss all over themselves and stink to high heaven when they're rutting. Ive killed a half dozen in the rut and all were excellent eating except for one hind quarter that I'd contaminated by not cleaning the knife off after cutting up the belly hide. ( The only elk I gutted ). All the others I made a point to skin out the belly hide , toss it far away, then use a different knife to continue quartering/butchering. That bad quarter was inedible, not even suitable for sausage. BTW, when does the caribou rut start?

cant tell for elk but can guarantee for caribou but i wont discourage you to try ....

, end of september but depending on the age of the bull andof course weather.

 

[mt terry d]

With the cost of flight time anymore I doubt I'll ever be back.

Sure enjoyed it though.

 

[Larry Bartlett]

Caribou are unique animals in the sense they drink copious amounts of urine to ID estrous timing in cows in late fall, resulting in a metabolic threshold of absorption/filtering affecting the taste of the meat. Like eating a sponge soaked in a bucket of strong piss. Has nothing to do with rolling or wallowing in urine pits like any other ungulate. This happens in october/november from my experience in AK with mature caribou bulls.

The Western Arctic Herd, Mulchatna/Killbuck Mnts Herd, the Central Arctic Herd and the Nelchina Herd (to name just these important few pops) are in drastic declines. This happens and will continue to happen. We don't know for certain why but scientific speculation is cyclic norms, brucellosis, range conditions, warmer climate stressors, heavy predation and other unknown factors cause these ebbs and flows. Management is all a knee-jerk reaction to a rapidly changing environment. If you add lower moose numbers and declining statewide Dall sheep populations to this conversation something of a larger picture is being developed as we type but nothing is certainly known as causation links, but I believe there is connectivity that we simply have not identified yet.

I just got off a Noatak tributary and saw two old caribou tracks in 60 miles of river, but did see 6 griz and tracks on every gravel bar for that 60 miles. Temps in the 80s, new ice lenses forming, slips getting larger and mineral seeps increasing load into otherwise pristine streams. All evidence points to warming affects as a collective argument.

For the argument of nuclear byproduct being a cause...not as likely as warmer climates affecting animal behavior and range selection/timing. Lichen is an interestingly complex organism that absorbs energy and stores it for a long long time. Tests of Alaska lichen (at least from NW AK) do not support radioactive compound arguments.

 

[medvedyt]

Caribou are unique animals in the sense they drink copious amounts of urine to ID estrous timing in cows in late fall, resulting in a metabolic threshold of absorption/filtering affecting the taste of the meat. Like eating a sponge soaked in a bucket of strong piss. Has nothing to do with rolling or wallowing in urine pits like any other ungulate. This happens in october/november from my experience in AK with mature caribou bulls.

The Western Arctic Herd, Mulchatna/Killbuck Mnts Herd, the Central Arctic Herd and the Nelchina Herd (to name just these important few pops) are in drastic declines. This happens and will continue to happen. We don't know for certain why but scientific speculation is cyclic norms, brucellosis, range conditions, warmer climate stressors, heavy predation and other unknown factors cause these ebbs and flows. Management is all a knee-jerk reaction to a rapidly changing environment. If you add lower moose numbers and declining statewide Dall sheep populations to this conversation something of a larger picture is being developed as we type but nothing is certainly known as causation links, but I believe there is connectivity that we simply have not identified yet.

I just got off a Noatak tributary and saw two old caribou tracks in 60 miles of river, but did see 6 griz and tracks on every gravel bar for that 60 miles. Temps in the 80s, new ice lenses forming, slips getting larger and mineral seeps increasing load into otherwise pristine streams. All evidence points to warming affects as a collective argument.

For the argument of nuclear byproduct being a cause...not as likely as warmer climates affecting animal behavior and range selection/timing. Lichen is an interestingly complex organism that absorbs energy and stores it for a long long time. Tests of Alaska lichen (at least from NW AK) do not support radioactive compound arguments.

thank you Larry still loves reading your advice and book.
i had observed caribou bull rolling in pee pits nothing to compare with elk or red deer per say but still and the mature ones are getting in rut earlier than smaller and younger bulls. but the drinking is really the killer for sure.