POPULATION DYNAMICS OF THE MACKENZIE DELTA REINDEER HERD, 1938-1958

• Main Author: Charles J. Krebs
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Canada; East Bank; Great Bear Lake; Mackenzie Delta; Mackenzie River; Yukon; Coppermine River; Mackenzie river; Rangifer tarandus; Subarctic; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.547.3960; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/arctic14-2-91.pdf

T HE value of the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) as a domestic grazing an- imal of the arctic and subarctic regions has long been known in Eurasia. In 1926 Canada considered establishing reindeer in the arctic and commis-sioned A. E. Porsild to undertake a 2.5-year survey of the country between the Alaska-Yukon boundary on the west, the Coppermine River on the east, Great Bear Lake on the south, and the Arctic Ocean on the north, to deter-mine the best area to locate a reindeer herd. As a result of this survey (Porsild 1929) a 6600-square-mile Reindeer Grazing Preserve was set up just northeast of the Mackenzie Delta, N.W.T. The reindeer to be used for the introduction were purchased in Alaska in 1929. They were driven 1600 miles from Kotzebue Sound on the west coast of Alaska to the east bank of the Mackenzie River. The trip was begun with 3440 reindeer in December 1929, and the herd had dwindled to 2370 animals when it reached the Mackenzie River in March 1935 (Crerar and Bonnycastle 1936). The original plan of the experiment was to set up a main herd of rein-