Estimating Bathurst Island Peary caribou and muskox populations

Abstract

Rangifer tarandus pearyi and Ovibos moschatus numbers were estimated by systematic aerial survey on Bathurst Island and Bathurst's five western major satellite islands of Vanier, Cameron, Alexander, Massey and Marc, Northwest Territories. In July 1985, 727 Peary caribou and 547 muskoxen were estimated on the six-island survey area and in July 1988, 1034 Peary caribou and 522 muskoxen. Annual inter-island variation in range use by varying numbers of caribou could confound population estimates based on aerial surveys that do not include, at least, the five western major satellite islands. -from Author