The Barren Ground Caribou of Keewatin Part 13

The average length of these specimens exceeds that of the Windy River specimens by 278 mm.; the average height at the shoulder, by 37 mm. The length of an adult male from Artillery Lake (J. A.

Allen, 1910: 8) exceeds the Windy River average by 156 mm., and its shoulder height (Seton, 1929, +3+: 97), by 10 mm., but the length of its hind foot, as recorded, is 17 mm. less than the Windy River average.

The measurements of four adult females, taken by Anderson, 1910 and 1911, at Langton Bay, Horton River, and Great Bear Lake (Nos. 34429, 34434, 34441, 34442, Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.) are: length, 1625-1815 (1736); height at shoulder, 825-1066 (968); shoulder to hip (one specimen), 863. The average length of these specimens exceeds that of a Windy River adult female by 146 mm.; the average height at the shoulder, by 98 mm. The length of an adult female from Aylmer Lake (J. A. Allen, 1910: 8) exceeds that of the Windy River specimen by 112 mm.; the length of its hind foot, by 18 mm.; and the height at the shoulder (Seton, 1929, +3+: 97), by 43 mm.

Thus there appears to be a fairly uniform tendency toward greater body measurements from southwestern Keewatin to northwestern Mackenzie. The weight of Seton's male from Artillery Lake (270 lb.) considerably exceeds the maximum (200 lb.) that I estimated for any of the Windy River males. Maximum measurements are furnished by winter specimens from the region of Langton and Darnley Bays.

The skulls of two adult males from Horton River and Artillery Lake (Nos. 34502 and 29031, Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.) measure, respectively: condylobasal length (tip of premaxillary to posterior plane of condyles), 381, 371; zygomatic width, 138, approximately 142; interorbital width, 143, 144; nasal, 126, 112; maxillary tooth-row, 87, 84; mandibular tooth-row (of No.

29031), 93. The rostral profile of the former is slightly convex; of the latter nearly flat. Comparison with Windy River adult males (see accompanying table) indicates a longer and a broader skull in the more northwesterly specimens. The measurements of the skulls of Southampton Island specimens as presented by Sutton and Hamilton (1932: 87), suggest a somewhat larger animal than the mainland form.

The left antler of an adult male from Horton River (No. 34502, Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.) measures: length, 1248; length of brow tine, 345; width of brow tine, 360; total points (both antlers), 16 + 14 = 30. The corresponding measurements of two sets of antlers from Fort Reliance in the American Museum of Natural History are: No. 121471 (left), 1242-285-108; (right), 1244-412-294; total points, 16 + 23 = 39; No. 121473 (left), 1312-360-290 (broken); (right), 1230 (approx.), brow tine a spike, not palmated; total points, approximately 19 + 13 = 32.

The Fort Reliance specimens were selected by George G. Goodwin from a large number of old antlers lying about, and they are naturally above the average in size. The antlers of adult males from the Windy River area (see accompanying table) measure distinctly less than those just mentioned.

Anderson (1913b: 505) and Stefansson (1913a: 106, and 1913b: 241, 276-277) have called attention to certain rather well-defined differences between the Caribou on both sides of Coronation Gulf and those elsewhere in northern Mackenzie. It may be a.s.sumed that the summer home of the former type is on Victoria Island. Many of these animals in former years crossed over to the mainland in the autumn after the freezing of Dolphin and Union Strait, Coronation Gulf, and Dease Strait made such a migration possible; and they recrossed to the island in the spring. During recent years this migration has greatly dwindled (Blanchet, 1930: 50; Birket-Smith, 1933: 93; Clarke, 1940: 98; Gavin, 1945: 227; G.o.dsell, 1937: 288; Banfield, 1949: 481); consequently the Victoria Island population now seems to be largely confined to that island throughout the year. In the American Museum of Natural History I have examined several of Anderson's specimens of 1911-1912 that are obviously of this form, and I should scarcely hesitate to give them nomenclatural recognition except for the fact that there has obviously been some confusion in the labeling of the specimens (after they reached the museum). Needless to say, a specimen selected as a type should bear unquestionable data.

During the winter there is some interchange of populations between Banks and Victoria islands across the frozen Prince of Wales Strait (Armstrong, 1857: 297, 336). The description that Armstrong gives (1857: 478), based ostensibly on Banks Island specimens, indicates that the animals of that island are very close to, if not identical with, _Rangifer pearyi_ of the more northerly Arctic islands. Yet there is no known interchange of populations across the frozen McClure Strait or other wide sea channels in approximately lat.i.tude 74 N.

The Caribou of Boothia Peninsula and Somerset and Prince of Wales islands are said to be a small form (Wright, 1944: 195).

The Caribou of the Dubawnt River region, as far as may be judged from J. B. Tyrrell's photographs (1897: pl. 1; Seton, 1929, +3+: pl. 22), are indistinguishable from those of the Nueltin Lake region.

The Southampton Island antlers figured by Sutton and Hamilton (1932: pl. 8) are so strikingly different from all but one (No. 1132) of those that I noticed in southwestern Keewatin that I should be much inclined to regard them as representing a separate subspecies, provided they are typical of that island. In most of the bucks of the Windy River area the beams are deeply and fairly uniformly bowed, although there is a strong tendency for approximately the basal third to be nearly straight, with a p.r.o.nounced forward bend just above it (_cf._ figs. 3, 4, 9, 10, 12, 22, 25). The bend at this point in the Southampton antlers is extremely slight by comparison. In mainland specimens the beam in cross-section is generally more or less round, with rarely any tendency toward flattening, such as may be seen in the Southampton set and in my No.

1132. Furthermore, I cannot recall in the mainland animals a single such p.r.o.nounced zigzag effect as may be seen in the Southampton antlers. In extremely few of them does the bez tine originate at such a distance (apparently 8 inches or so) above the base, as in Sutton and Hamilton's figure. The lack of palmation in the bez tines of their specimen is noteworthy.

There is a distinct likelihood that the isolated herd of Coats Island (Wright, 1944: 188; Banfield, 1949: 481), and also that of Salisbury Island in Hudson Strait (Grant, 1903: 189; Tweedsmuir, 1951: 37), may be distinct from the populations on the nearest large land bodies.

I have briefly examined a dozen or more heads (skulls with antlers) of the Labrador Barren Ground Caribou (_R. a. caboti_ G. M. Allen) in the United States National Museum; they were collected by L. M. Turner in the 1880's. Some of these antlers appear longer than any I saw in Keewatin. Furthermore, the tips of the bez tines in these specimens seem, on the average, more strongly incurved than in _R. a. arcticus_.

For the purpose of comparing the Barren Ground Caribou with the Western Woodland Caribou, _Rangifer caribou sylvestris_ (Richardson), the following notes are offered on an adult male of the latter form in the United States Biological Surveys Collection (No. 235361; fig. 28). It was secured by a Cree Indian on Stony Mountain, about 27 miles south of Fort McMurray, Alberta, on October 21, 1920, and it was measured and prepared by myself. The general dorsal color is near Prout's Brown, overlaid more or less with longer whitish hairs; outer surface of ears near Prout's Brown, with an admixture of grayish white hairs; tip of snout, between nostrils and upper lip, Cartridge Buff; this area of more restricted extent than the similar patch in _arcticus_; neck creamy; longest hairs of throat fringe about 20 mm. (longer than in _arcticus_); no appreciable dark longitudinal stripe on lower sides, but an ill-defined lighter patch on the side behind the shoulder; rump-patch apparently less extensive than in _R. a. arcticus_; venter near Buffy Brown, posteriorly creamy; creamy white "spats" above hoofs to 1 inches wide, not extending up hind leg as indicated by Seton (1929, +3+: pl. 10). Length, 2025; tail, 225; foot, 625; front hoof, 109; hind hoof, 101; estimated weight, 300 lb. The Western Woodland Caribou is thus a distinctly larger animal than _R. a. arcticus_, with a noteworthy difference in the virtual absence of a light lateral stripe, setting off a darker stripe below it. The specific distinctness between the two animals seems abundantly clear.

_References to general descriptions (including geographical variation)._--Richardson, 1829: 239, 241-242; Armstrong, 1857: 478; Baird, 1857: 635; Caton, 1881: 105; Lydekker, 1898: 47-48, 1901: 38-40, and 1915: 254; Elliot, 1901: 37, and 1902: 281-282, 286-287; Preble, 1902: 42-43; Stone and Cram, 1904: 52; J. A.

Allen, 1908a: 488; Millais, 1915: 261; Buchanan, 1920: 125-126; Anthony, 1928: 530-531; Seton, 1929, +3+: 98-99; Jacobi, 1931: 78-80; Sutton and Hamilton, 1932: 88; Degerbl, 1935: 48-51; R. M. Anderson, 1937: 103; Hamilton, 1939: 109; Murie, 1939: 239; G. M. Allen, 1942: 297-298; Wright, 1944: 195; Rand, 1948a: 211-212; Banfield, 1951a: 15-17; Mochi and Carter, 1953: text to pl. 9.

_References to ill.u.s.trations._--Parry, 1824: pl. facing p. 508; Richardson, 1829: 240; Caton, 1881: 207; Pike, 1917 (1892): pl.

facing p. 89; J. B. Tyrrell, 1897: pl. 1; J. W. Tyrrell, 1908 (1898): pls. facing pp. 80, 81; Grant, 1903: 6th and 7th pls.

following p. 196; J. A. Allen, 1908a: 500-503; Seton, 1911: 254, 256, 262, and pls. facing pp. 222, 224, 226, 228, 234; Buchanan, 1920: pl. facing p. 132; Hewitt, 1921: pls. 3, 5; Blanchet, 1926b: 47; Seton, 1929, +3+: pls. 17, 21, 22, 23; Blanchet, 1930: 50; Sutton and Hamilton, 1932: pl. 8, fig. 4; Ingstad, 1933: pl. facing p. 178; Clarke, 1940: frontisp., 85, 87, 89; Harper, 1949: 224, 229; Banfield, 1951a: figs. 1, 2, 12-16, 20, 21, 23; Anonymous, 1952: 261, 263, 266, 267; Mochi and Carter, 1953: pl. 9; Barnett, 1954: 90-91, 103-105.

LITERATURE CITED

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