Public Registry: Archives

Ekwǫ̀ Nàxoède K’è is a Bathurst caribou monitoring program based upon the Traditional Knowledge (TK) of Tłı̨chǫ and Inuit indigenous elders and harvesters. The new name for the program, Ekwǫ̀ Nàxoède K’è, replaces its previous name Boots on the Ground. Ekwǫ̀ Nàxoède K’è was chosen by the Tłı̨chǫ program advisors, and means “in the migration of caribou,” and everything that relates to them. The objectives are to monitor the conditions of Bathurst caribou herd on the summer range, focusing on four key indicators: (1) habitat; (2) caribou; (3) predators, and (4) industrial development. 

Key words: Bathurst caribou, monitoring, habitat, predators, industrial development, indicators, climate change, sustainability

This chapter will attempt to explore the significance of wolf recovery in the western Great Lakes region to one group of people – those known to others as the Ojibwe or Chippewa, and to themselves as the Anishinabe. It is not written by an Ojibwe, but by an individual who has had the pleasure and privilege of working with and for the Ojibwe for over two decades. It does not purport to extend the concepts discussed to other Native American nations – even those others residing in the western Great Lakes region – though in some cases there will be similarities.

It also does not intend to suggest that it fully captures the complexities of the relationship that exists between the Ojibwe and the wolf – or even that a singular relationship exists. The connection that individual Ojibweg share with ma’iingan tends to be deep, significant, and personal; any suggestion in the essay below that implies otherwise reflects only the shortcomings of the author.

Key words: wolf population, tribal member, wolf management, Anishnabe, western Great Lakes region, relationship between Ojibwe and wolf

1. We investigated the functional response of wolves (Canis lupus) to varying abundance of ungulate prey to test the hypothesis that switching from alternate prey to preferred prey results in regulation of a caribou (Rangifer tarandus) population at low densities.
2. We determined prey selection, kill rates, and prey abundance for four wolf packs during three 30-day periods in March 1989, March 1990 and November 1990, and created a simple discrete model to evaluate the potential for the expected numerical and observed functional responses of wolves to regulate caribou populations.
3. We observed a quickly decelerating type II functional response that, in the absence of a numerical response, implicates an anti-regulatory effect of wolf predation on barren-ground caribou dynamics.
4. There was little potential for regulation caused by the multiplicative effect of increasing functional and numerical responses because of the presence of alternative prey. This resulted in high wolf: caribou ratios at low prey densities which precluded the effects of an increasing functional response.
5. Inversely density-dependent predation by other predators, such as bears, reduces the potential for predators to regulate caribou populations at low densities, and small reductions in predation by one predator may have disproportionately large effects on the total predation rate.

Key words: wolves, caribou, predator-prey dynamics, functional response, numerical response.

This article is about constitutionalism as an Indigenous tradition. The political idea of constitutionalism is the idea that the process of governing is itself governed by a set of foundational laws or rules. There is ample evidence that Indigenous nations in North America—and in Australia and New Zealand as well—were in this sense constitutionalists. Customary law, cultural norms, and shared protocols provided well understood guidelines for key aspects of governance by shaping both personal and collective action, the behavior of leaders, decision-making, dispute resolution, and relationships with the human, material, and spirit worlds. Today, many of these nations have governing systems imposed by outsiders. As they move to change these systems, they also are reclaiming their own constitutional traditions.

Key words: self-government, governance, constitutionalism, Indigenous nations, tradition, customary law

Of the 64 wolves recorded as harvested from the North Slave Region in 2019-20, 50 carcasses were necropsied.

The North Slave Region received 65 wolf carcasses from the winter of 2018-19 that were necropsied. There were 59 wolves taken by hunters in the new wolf harvest incentive area in winter 2018-19, 56 of which were paid $900/wolf ($50,400 total).

The Wildlife Management Advisory Council (WMAC-NWT) and the Inuvialuit Game Council (IGC) approved a wolf-prey research program because wolves in the area prey predominately on caribou (Rangifer tarandus), which is an important food species for Inuvialuit. Wolves are also an Important fur resource used in the communties or sold for economic benefit. The Inuvialuit are interested in maintaining a wolf population that is a part of the natural environment and can meet their needs, yet not jeopardize their opportunity to harvest caribou.

In the context of debates over the protection, management, and public hunting and trapping of wolves (ma’iinganag) in Minnesota and Wisconsin, this draft book chapter examines a prominent cultural discourse employed by representatives of Ojibwe communities and governments: that of the wolf as a relative whose fate the Ojibwe share. The chapter shows how contemporary communication practices—and concepts of relevant communication forms—are rooted in historically situated ways of conceiving relationships among humans, other persons, and the earth.

Key words: wolf as a relative whose fate the Ojibwe share, relationships among humans, other persons, and the earth

This notice advises that the WRRB's Traditional Knowledge Technical Session is scheduled for October 13, 2020, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. MDT, hosted online through Zoom. Invitations to the Zoom meeting will be sent to participants prior to the technical session.

This Report provides a summary of the gross necropsy findings from 36 wolf carcasses derived from the 2020 Wolf (Dìga) Management Pilot Program implemented on the Bathurst and Bluenose-East caribou winter ranges.

The Mobile Conservation Zone (MCZ) was implemented as a strategy to ensure the conservation of the Bathurst caribou herd. The MCZ is a dynamic wildlife management unit that represents a ‘no harvest zone’ around the herd’s current location. The MCZ boundary is updated approximately every four days to account for both daily and seasonal shifts in landscape use by the caribou. The objective of this project was to develop an ArcMap Add-In that utilizes telemetry data to generate MCZ boundaries for the Bathurst herd for a user-specified time period (e.g., every four days).

Wolves (Canis lupus) and arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus) are the only canid species found throughout the mainland tundra and arctic islands of North America. Contrasting evolutionary histories, and the contemporary ecology of each species, have combined to produce their divergent population genetic characteristics. 

Key words: Alopex lagopus, arctic fox, Canis lupus, dispersal, genetic structure, grey wolf, microsatellite, prey specialization.

This study characterizes population genetic structure among grey wolves (Canis lupus) in northwestern Canada, and discusses potential physical and biological determinants of this structure. 

Key words: Banks Island, gene flow, grey wolf, microsatellites, prey specialization, topographic barriers.

The article details how Type 1, 2, and 3 response functions were fit to the data using linear and nonlinear regression as appropriate and found that the evidence supported wolf population regulation by density-dependence as much as limitation by prey availability.

Key words: numerical response, prey limitation regulation, Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, wolves.

In June 2011, an estimate of the abundance of breeding female barren-ground caribou was determined, based on aerial surveys of three calving areas in Nunavut.