Alaska's Caribou Herds (Anchorage, Nome, Point Hope: university, live, law)

[SityData]

Mod Cut

Someone once mentioned that there is no such thing as caribou herds that number in the thousands in Alaska? A link was posted to ADFG as the credible source.

I followed that link and soon found out that over 400,000 caribou are in that herd. Then I looked more closely and found out that the census was in 2004.

Anchorage Daily News has the 2009 census.

The Porcupine herd is Alaska's second largest, behind the Western Arctic herd, which was estimated at 401,000 caribou in 2009. [/left]

Read more: HERE.

Thank you for taking the time.

[SityData]

How about that ! (chuckle).

[bortstc37]

who said that?
obviously somebody who is misinformed.
no controversy here...

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by bortstc37

who said that?
obviously somebody who is misinformed.
no controversy here...

Nobody said that. Somebody can't read, that's all. :-)

[SityData]

Originally Posted by floyd_davidson

nobody said that. Somebody can't read, that's all. :-)

i

[RedJacket]

Santa's reindeer should be a protected species otherwise the day will come when he won't be able to deliver toys to all the girls and boys.

[Barkingowl]

There's no better way to start one's day than with a big plate of spicy reindeer sausage.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by RedJacket

Santa's reindeer should be a protected species otherwise the day will come when he won't be able to deliver toys to all the girls and boys.

Heh heh. Reindeer (in Alaska) are protected! They are privately own herds. Caribou are wild.

A few decades ago I was in a plane flying back to Nome along the coast of Norton Sound from the southeast and we spotted a few reindeer. I couldn't tell the difference of course, but the pilot let me in on the secret to knowing which is which. If there's nobody in sight, and there's a place to land and shoot... those are caribou, otherwise it's just reindeer. (That's only half joking too, because there's virtually always a herder near any reindeer, keeping watch.)

[RedJacket]

I first heard about this story while watching an episode of Alaska State Troopers.

Special: Point Hope

Caribou crime: The hunt for the hunters

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by RedJacket

I first heard about this story while watching an episode of Alaska State Troopers.

Special: Point Hope

Caribou crime: The hunt for the hunters

Do not miss reading this response, by retired University of Alaska Professor of Justice Steven Conn:

Response to the three-part series,

That gives a bit the of background necessary to understand what actually happened. The next thing to keep in mind is that when the Alaska State Troopers, after all the prosecution by rumor and press releases, actually went to court they lost on every count. They made up a lot of racist propaganda to incite urban Alaskans into a frenzy of anti-Native actions, but they had no evidence that any of it was true.

And note that the recent TV program on the Alaska State Troopers that featured that case totally failed to mention the eventual outcome of the court cases.

All in all, it was a very disgusting display of racism by AST. It totally disregarded the law, it totally disregarded the rights of people in Point Hope, and it was scientific nonsense at its worst. (Among other things they flat said that subsistence hunters from Point Hope are required to disregard ages old methods of protecting village elders from brucellosis because they've written a law intended to prevent non-residents from shooting animals for the trophy antlers. That purely a case of racism gone wild.)