Tab.1: Total estimated muskox numbers and quotas in management zones of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut ...

• Main Author: Treude, Erhard
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2004
• Subjects: Area/locality; Zone; Commune; Population; Observation; Estimated; inuit; Iqaluit; muskox; Northwest Territories; Nunavut; Yellowknife
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.757730; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.757730

In view of the drastic growth in the Canadian Inuit population, the rising costs of living, the missing job and income alternatives and the high unemployment rate in the arctic, efforts are being made to make use of the muskox populations in order to provide additional sources of food and/or revenue. The present paper attempts to review the course of muskox utilization in the Canadian Arctic and to tentatively assess its present as weIl as its future economic importance. Starting with the pre-European status of muskoxen in Canada, the drastic reduction in numbers resulting from the combined efforts of hide traders, whalers and expedition parties in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the impact of the legal protection and the recovery since 1917 are being described. Establishing muskox farms with semi-domesticated herds failed in Canada in the 1970's. Since 1969, though, increasing numbers of animals have been allotted to many Inuit communities, and despite the fact that most of the animals were primarily ... : N.W.T. Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Yellowknife, unpubl. data; A. GUNN, Yellowknife, and D. SMITH, Iqaluit, pers. comm. ...