"I just wanted to drop you a line to bring you up to date on the caribou situation up in northern Quebec. I just got back from a hunt in an area about 100 miles west of Kuujjuaq&I had a chopper with me and had a chance to fly around and take a good look at the available herds. The camp also had a group of other hunters who hunted by boat only. As you know, the George River herd has been closed to hunting. We were hunting the Leaf River herd with its last population estimate at around 430,000 head.
"This area we were hunting now belongs to Tunilik Adventure. They bought an older site from Sammy Cantafio (of Ungava Adventures) and moved there from Schefferville because of the hunt closure with the George River herd "The daily average sightings of caribou with us and the other hunters at the camp during my week was at about 100 head. The herds seem smaller than before with an average of about 20 to 30 caribou in the daily sighted herds. The animals were spread out over a very large landmass. "The bull-to-cow ratio was very good at around 50-50. The bulls we killed (including two that probably made the SCI record books) were very large in size (one was easily close to 375 pounds on the hoof), extremely healthy with about two inches of fat on their backs. I checked the livers on the bulls we took and did not see any evidence of parasites or flukes, one of the surest signs of animals in trouble.
"To conclude, the caribou seem to be in very good health, with good antler mass........(continued)
