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Gunn and Fournier. 2000.
Identification and Substantiation of Caribou Calving Grounds on the NWT
Mainland and Islands. 176 pp.
ABSTRACT
As
background to manage human activities on caribou calving grounds, we
have compiled published and unpublished information on the location of a
caribou calving grounds.
We compiled information for 20 geographic areas where caribou
calving had been recorded or inferred for at least 1 year.
We excluded the major barren-ground herds (Bluenose, Bathurst,
Beverly and Qamanirjuaq) or caribou on Banks Island as these have been
reported elsewhere, or the caribou on Baffin Island as the information
was not available to us.
Two sources of uncertainty hampered identifying and
substantiating calving grounds.
Firstly, sampling frequency (the number of surveys and years of
radio-tracking available to identify calving areas) and duration of the
sampled period varied widely.
On average for each of the 20 calving areas, we had 4 years of
information over a period averaging 11 years duration.
Secondly, the amount of detail in the reports was uneven and some
reports were unavailable.
We defined 14 of those 20 areas as calving grounds where we had
information to indicate that cows had annually returned to the area (2
year’s of information with geographic overlap in calving
distribution).
We also recorded landscape information (terrain, elevation,
vegetation) for the 20 identified calving grounds and areas.
Our compilation leads is two generations: firstly, our current
knowledge is hedged with uncertainties and secondly, calving grounds in
the Northwest territories are diverse in their landscapes, vegetation
and climate. |
