REINDEER HERD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 November 1940, Page 3

REINDEER HERD

ROUND UP IN CANADIAN RESERVE. PROGRESS OF CONSERVATION POLICY. OTTAWA. With a fawn increase of 1,486 head, the largest yet recorded, Canada's main reindeer herd now comprises more than 5,000 animals. Each year since the original herd of 2,370 was delivered from Alaska in 1935, a gradual increase has been recorded in the number of fawns born. This year’s roundup was completed in four days, the entire herd being put through the corrals, examined, counted and classified. Animals surplus to the requirements of the herd were selected for slaughter later in the year when the meat is prime. The annual round-up of the government herd on the Reindeer Reserve is staged on the summer range on Richards Island, a short distance off the Arctic Coast.

A secondary herd under government supervision is located in the vicinity of Anderson River, about 150 miles east of the main herd. This smaller herd was started in December. 1938. with some 950 deer placed under native management and is now estimated to comprise approximately 1,600 head. Another step in Canada’s plan to establish reindeer ranching among the Eskimo population will soon be undertaken when a second native herd will be established in November in the Horton River area, about 100 miles east of the first native herd.