The Caribou

What can I say………Getting this close to the caribou was an AWESOME experience. 

We were watching the Bathurst Herd of barren- ground caribou. They calve around the Bathurst Inlet and migrate to the Barren Lands to feed for the Summer. As Winter approaches, the caribou head southward, towards Yellowknife and the more protected, wooded areas. Point lake is right on the migration route…….You can see Point Lake on this map, near the center and top 1/3rd, just a bit below and west of the shaded area. They are traveling this route counter-clockwise.

We were fortunate enough to see several larger groups of caribou….The largest group had about 20…….I could only get smaller groupings in my camera range.

You may notice, in some of my pictures, some of the larger, males have red on their antlers and/or some stuff hanging off them. We caught these caribou just as they were shedding the velvet from their antlers, which leaves them reddish for a while.

We would take as many pictures as we could get…..before the caribou up and ran!

As we would be out in the boats, cruising the shoreline …..we would occasionally see several caribou on the ridge, silhouetted against the sky

Or a magnificent male……just ‘surveying his kingdom’…….

These caribou were heading straight towards us!

These three fellows are all lined up…….

This is a female caribou…..they, also have antlers, only theirs are  smaller and non-branched. The caribou are curious creatures. If they did not feel threatened, they would just watch us……..

This momma and her baby seem so peaceful……..

I feel privileged to have the opportunity to observe these wonderful animals in the wild…………