Wildlife officials comb Arctic for 3,200 missing reindeer

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=223957

Wildlife officials comb Arctic for 3,200 missing reindeer
Lost herd may present health risk to N.W.T. caribou

Melissa Leong, National Post Published: Tuesday, January 08, 2008



Mike Thomas/Yukon NewsThe lost animals, the only reindeer herd in the
Northwest Territories, have caused concern among some wildlife
officials that the reindeer will mix with and potentially threaten the
caribou population.
Lloyd Binder has spent a month scouring Canada's Arctic on a
snowmobile, searching for 3,200 missing reindeer.

Mr. Binder, a 56-year-old Inuvik resident, arrived on Richards Island
near Tuktoyaktuk where the animals live in the summer, to find them
gone. The semi-domesticated herd had crossed the ice into the mainland
east of Mackenzie River and scattered.

The lost animals, the only reindeer herd in the Northwest Territories,
have caused concern among some wildlife officials that the reindeer
will mix with and potentially threaten the caribou population.

"Animals have been known to stray. But this is just the first time it
has ever happened in such a large number and so early in the year,"
said Mr. Binder, who has owned the herd since 2002.

Hampered by weather and short Arctic days, Mr. Binder and another
herder have been rounding up groups of reindeer to a total of about
400.

"We found a lot of tracks. It looked like they were running in narrow
files ... it is obvious that wolves have been chasing them," he said.

Mr. Binder worries that the longer the reindeer mingle with the
caribou, the wilder they will be.

Tony Grabowski, a veteran of Yukon's conservation service, said the
reindeer could spread disease to wild caribou, recalling an incident
two years ago when 51 domesticated reindeers in a pen near Whitehorse
had to be culled because the herd had tested positive for Johne's
disease, a bacterial infection of the lower intestine.

But Mr. Binder said his reindeer pose no health problems for the
caribou because the two freely graze in the same natural landscape.
"Whatever diseases the caribou have, the reindeer will have."

He said he will continue to search everyday for the missing reindeer.

"These animals are used to moving to the island in the spring. It is
possible that towards fawning time, they will start naturally heading
in that direction."

Historically, for the herder, drama and hardship has often accompanied
the reindeer herd which was brought over from Alaska to Canada in the
1930s. In a 2001 newspaper article, a reporter said: "it has been
suggested that the animals are cursed."

Mr. Binder's grandfather, Mikkel Nilsen Pulk, came from Norway to herd
the reindeer, along with several other families.

However, in 1944, animals were handed back to the government after a
schooner carrying some family members sank in a freak storm.

In 1984, William Nasogaluak threatened to slaughter the entire herd
after the federal government settled a land claim with the Inuvialuit,
leaving the herder with no place for the 10,000 reindeer to graze.

The situation got worse when the government of the Northwest
Territories passed legislation allowing people to hunt caribou on the
grazing reserve. Suddenly, people were shooting the reindeer because
they looked like caribou.

"The previous owner told me it is all about heartbreak. It's all about
heartbreak and disappointment," Mr. Binder said.

"But it's this thing I got for reindeer. It's something I grew up
with."

With files from CanWest News Service
.

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