Woodland Caribou in Quebec
In the Province of Quebec, Canada, caribou live in large wild herds, including the Leaf herd with 628 000 individuals and the George River herd with 385 000 individuals. The caribou generally travel upwards of 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) annually and live in an area of about 1,000,000 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi). Some individuals have been observed traveling 6,000 kilometres (3,700 mi) in a single year.
The caribou population varies considerably, for unknown reasons, and their numbers have apparently peaked in the later decades of each of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The most recent decline at the turn of the 20th century caused much hardship for the Inuit and Cree communities of Nunavik, who hunt them for subsistence. By 1950, as few as 5000 caribou remained in northern Quebec and Labrador.
The George River herd, south of Ungava Bay, whose numbers reached about 800 000 towards 1993, had about 384 000 individuals in 2001. The Leaf herd in the west, near the coast of Hudson Bay, has grown from 270 000 individuals in 1991 to 628 000 in 2001. Inuit, Cree and southern sport hunters kill about 30 000 caribou each year in northern Quebec.
Read more about this topic: Migratory Woodland Caribou
Famous quotes containing the word woodland:
“I already, and for weeks afterward, felt my nature the coarser for this part of my woodland experience, and was reminded that our life should be lived as tenderly and daintily as one would pluck a flower.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)