The Danish-Greenlandic Environmental Cooperation
Caribou and musk oxen are meat and adventure
Both caribou and domesticated reindeer are utilized in Greenland. Musk oxen are only used as game. Shooting a musk ox provides four times as much meat as a reindeer. But Greenlanders prefer reindeer meat.
Is it better to count on domesticated reindeer ranching or on hunting wild caribou?
Caribou live on the west coast of Greenland, from Paamiut (Frederikshåb) to Ilulissat (Jakobshavn). There are eight or more small isolated herds.
Domesticated reindeer are raised in Bredefjord. The reindeer ranch is in Isortoq. There are 5000 reindeer in the winter flock. Two families, in all seven or eight people on a yearlong basis, live off the reindeer. One of the owners was apprenticed in Godthåbsfjord, when there was reindeer ranching there. A hundred animals from the herd at Godthåbsfjord were moved to south Greenland, where a number of facilities have since been built. There are a slaughterhouse, corrals, vehicles, and for emergencies, a helicopter. Profits have gradually been invested in more facilities. Last year, a couple of thousand reindeer were slaughtered. The business started in 1973 in Bredefjord, now the only place in Greenland with a domesticated reindeer ranch.
The domesticated reindeer came originally from Norway to Godthåbsfjord. Here they mixed, to a certain extent, with the caribou. However, the herd in south Greenland was started before there was much mixing. The Bredefjord herd is therefore a very pure reindeer herd; the descendents of the original Norwegian domesticated reindeer.
"Domesticated reindeer look more variegated than caribou," describes Josefine Nymand. "A difference which fades, though, as time passes. It is clearest on the calves whether they are of caribou or reindeer stock. But it probably won't be too many years before this difference also disappears." Josefine Nymand is Greenlandic and is working on her PhD, a title that normally leads to work as a researcher. She is associated with the Dancea-supported projects at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources. At the moment, Josefine Nymand is trying to uncover the myths and realities about the lives of reindeer and caribou.
Domesticated and wild
Domesticated reindeer live like caribou, except in the fall, when they are rounded up for slaughter.
The pressure on the reindeer comes from parasites, especially botflies and warble flies. These parasites affect the welfare of the reindeers and the value of their meat and skins.
"Experience with reindeer ranching in Norway shows that if the animals are treated for warble flies, then the meat weight of the calves increases. The animals get bigger and heavier," explains Josefine Nymand.
If the animals are well fed and in good condition, then they will not have many botflies and warble flies. If they are healthy, then the skins will not really show anything either. Even if they have warble flies that bore through the skin in the spring, the holes will close up again if the animals are in reasonably good condition. In bad times, pressure from parasites is relatively more important. But it can be difficult to tell if an animal has died because of starvation or parasites.
"The parasites are more significant when the botflies and warble flies swarm around the animal," continues Josefine Nymand. "Botflies have to squirt their eggs into the animals' noses, and warble flies have to find a place to settle on the legs to lay their eggs. It disturbs the reindeer while they are foraging. They flee from places like that, and reduce their consumption of food by a few hours because they have to get away from the insects."
The problem is the same for the caribou. The parasite was introduced by the domesticated reindeer from Norway in the 1950s, and has spread to the caribou since then.
Originally, before 1950, the Greenlandic caribou population was the only one in the world that did not have parasites. All other caribou and reindeer populations had parasites, and lived with them. Greenlandic hunters say that they could see the effects on the caribou population after they were infected with parasites.
Catastrophic climat
Mild winters can also have catastrophic consequences for the reindeer and caribou populations. If there is a föhn wind that melts the snow, followed by periods of frost, it can be difficult for the reindeer to scrape their way down to their food. This is typically a local phenomenon. Real catastrophes usually only happen if the previous summer has not been good. If the animals do not become big and fat during the summer, and then a mild winter follows - first thaw, then frost - there can be many fatalities. A cold wet autumn followed by a long hard winter with deep snow can also be catastrophic.
In Bredefjord, for a period, there were altogether too many animals. The reindeer lichens have disappeared, except in some parts of the wintering areas. For that reason, the animals were transferred so they would use new wintering areas. Now the reindeer migrate themselves, but there is still a problem with overgrazing.
"But when the reindeer are going to calve, ten wild horses can't keep them away from their calving areas," says Josefine Nymand. "The Greenlandic domesticated reindeer are incredibly stationary. That is also true of some of the caribou near Sønder Strømfjord. They do not migrate as much as you might imagine. They stay in the same place both summer and winter. It is only the calving areas that really draw them."
Regulation
The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources estimates that there are about 142,000 caribou in all of West Greenland. In the spring of 1993, the population was estimated to be as low as 10,000, which was the reason that they were totally protected from 1993 to 1994.
"We were caught off guard, both biologists and administrators," says Peter Nielsen, Head of Office at the Ministry of Environment and Nature. "When we did the total ban in 93-94, I was completely convinced that we were doing the right thing. Everyone knew that the caribou population was very low. It could well be that we did not get the numbers right, that we were too pessimistic, but still, it was very low."
At one point - in 1990 - people thought that there were too many animals with respect to vegetation. "For the time being," continues Peter Nielsen, "I will take all statements on the relationship between vegetation and the number of caribou calmly, and wait for more thorough analyses. It is hard to believe that the vegetation is over-exploited while the population is growing as quickly as it has been."
Before the ban, the caribou population was only regulated at certain times. If you were a professional hunter, then you could kill as many animals as you wanted. If you were a part-time hunter, you could kill eight, and if you were a recreational hunter, you could kill three. But when hunting started again after the ban, there were quotas.
Very strict and conservatively set quotas.
Last year (2000), there was a great deal of dissatisfaction about the distribution of the caribou quotas. In Nuuk, the recreational hunters had to draw lots on the animals that were allocated to them, so that not everybody who wanted an animal got one. Professional hunters were allotted twenty-five, which was actually more than they could manage to hunt or sell. As a result, the quota was not very well taken advantage of.
Besides that, there can easily be different ways of arranging things in the different cities and villages. The municipal governments allocate the quotas as they see fit.
The hunting experienceIs the amount of caribou meat provided by the hunt really significant to the diet of the local Greenlandic population? A simple calculation shows that the quota this year, which is 24,000 caribou, would provide about 800 tons of meat (an average caribou carries 35- 37 kg of meat). That means that each Greenlander would get more than 15 kg of meat a year if the meat were distributed equally.
There are more than 5000 musk oxen in Kangerlussuaq (Sønder Strømfjord), and more than 1000 are killed each year, which the population can take. Some musk oxen are killed by trophy hunters and tourists.
"But the experience is just as important," points out Peter Nielsen. "It is simply the most wonderful part of the year. The trips in for the caribou hunt in the beautiful autumn weather have a great social and physical meaning for people's wellbeing. It has many functions."
All caribou is eaten in Greenland. Domesticated reindeer meat can be exported, because it is butchered in an EUapproved slaughterhouse in Narsaq.
The musk ox hunt
Trophy hunting of musk oxen started in the 1990s, though not without friction between professional hunters, part-time hunters, and trophy hunters.
"We know the problem from Kangerlussuaq," says Peter Nielsen, "where professional hunters leave first, followed by trophy hunters. When lots of dogsleds and snow scooters have been over the terrain before the trophy hunters come, then it is difficult to sell the illusion that this is unspoiled nature. The professional hunters hunt in a different way than the trophy hunters prefer. The professional hunters are more straightforward about their killing methods. It is more no-nonsense, while for the trophy hunters, going out and choosing exactly which animal they want is a big part of the enjoyment."
There are two periods of musk ox hunting: the autumn hunt, which coincides with the caribou hunt, and the winter hunt. The autumn hunt always involves sailing, and the hunt takes place near the coast. Still, it is hard work, because the meat of a musk ox weighs about 100 kg (the biggest are up around 150-160 kg). Because of the long and difficult transport, the meat is not always of good quality.
Most of the winter hunt takes place as close to the inland ice as possible, so the hunt is divided between the autumn hunt near the coast and winter shooting further inland. Also, the snow can be used to drive dogsleds and snow scooters on.
For thousands of years, musk oxen have had to defend themselves against wolves. For that reason, the herds take a defensive position with the musk bulls in front facing the danger. But this behavior is problematic, because the rest of the herd stays still, even when one of them has been killed. Is it necessary to take down the whole heard?
"It is possible to shoot single animals, so it is certainly not a rule that the whole heard should be killed," says Peter Nielsen. "When the hunt for musk oxen started, people were interested in the bulls first, because they thought there were too many of them. But now both bulls and cows are taken down."
Musk ox or caribou?
A slaughterhouse in Sønder Strømfjord has been established where a large portion of the musk oxen that are shot in the winter are butchered according to regulations, and can be exported to the EU.
Musk ox hunting is shared between the hunters in Manitsoq (Sukkertoppen) and Sisimiut (Holsteinsborg). There are some problems with that, because the traditional boundary for dogsledding is located between the two municipalities. The overlap of the two different traditions gives occasion to peevish remarks from the dogsledders, relates Josefine Nymand.
Today, there are more than 5000 musk oxen in Kangerlussuaq (Sønder Strømfjord) and more than 1000 are killed each year. Caribou and musk oxen can live side by side. The musk oxen go down in the valleys to the good grazing areas; the caribou go higher up, where the nutritional content of the grass is lower. The caribou give way to the musk oxen.
If you ask Josefine Nymand whether there is more meat per hectare when both musk oxen and caribou are in an area, she answers, "We don't know. But one deciding factor is that Greenlanders would much rather have caribou or reindeer meat than musk ox meat. So if Greenlanders could get used to eating musk ox meat, there is no doubt that it would be more advantageous to harvest from the musk oxen population in Sønder Strømfjord."
