The Quebec Caribou Hunting Season That Almost Wasnt

Despite the problems we've reported in Quebec caribou hunting these past years, there is some positive news. If you are interested in a caribou hunt for 2012, you will need this outfitter-by-outfitter review to help you pick the right hunt for you. Caribou were once considered some of the easiest trophies to acquire, although getting a better-than-representative specimen has never been a sure thing. But in recent years, caribou opportunities have been shrinking across the board. During the show season you'll still see agents and outfitters pushing caribou hunts as add-ons or as the primary species on offer. Some of the claims made in selling these hunts may seem too good to be true, perhaps because some are. The question is, as always, which of these offers is the right one for you to invest your time and money in? With the 2011 caribou season in Quebec over and hunt reports coming into our offices, it's a good time to see how everyone did. Despite the uncertainties we reported on last April (see Article ID 2635), it seems the season went fairly well. Continuing subscribers will remember we reported that Zone 23 in northern Quebec, where virtually all nonresident hunting occurs, had been divided into North and South Zones along the 57th parallel and then further divided into an East and West zone along the 67th Meridian to allow separate management of the George River caribou herd (GRH) to the east and the Leaf River herd (LRH) to the west. Quebec shares management of the GRH with Labrador, which severely curtailed resident caribou hunting and closed all nonresident caribou hunting in November, 2010. In March, Quebec announced that they were closing all caribou hunting below the 57th, cutting permits to 50 percent of the permits sold in the 2009 season and shortening the season by 44 days. The real bomb dropped at that time was that all hunting east of the 67th would be closed for the 2012-13 season pending further review of census numbers from 2011. Those numbers are now in. First the good news. The 2011 census estimates the LRH at 430,000 animals........(continued)