312 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 



A Possible New Domestic Animal for Cold Countries 



The reindeer industry is now well established by the United States 

 government in Alaska and herds will, in natural course, doubtless increase 

 till most of the tundra is utilized for pasturage, unless a more profitable 

 use of the ground is discovered. In Asia and Europe the tending of rein- 

 deer herds antedates history. 



In spite of the ancient character of the industry reindeer are in most, 

 if not all places where they are now found, wild to the degree that they 

 must be lassoed as the semi-wild cattle of our large ranches must also be 

 lassoed. In Alaska a dog not used to reindeer or a wolf will stampede 

 and scatter an untended herd, and, in some cases, even herds that have 

 an attendant, and animals are thus frequently lost even when they are 

 not killed by wolves. In bad weather the herds are sometimes hard to 

 control and in inclement springs a large percentage of the fawns die in 

 spite of the best efforts of the herders. 



From these points of view, the reindeer is, therefore, not an ideal 

 domestic animal for the arctic lands. A further disadvantage is that a 

 reindeer, unlike a sheep, is of no commercial value until after it is killed, 

 except the few that are used as draught animals. True, reindeer are 

 milked in some districts, but they are unsatisfactory compared with most 

 milk animals. 



This summer (1916) our parties have been in more intimate contact 

 with musk-oxen than is common with white men, and they have im- 

 pressed all of us as a most valuable animal and one easy to domesticate. 

 In fact, they act more like domestic cattle than does the average Alas- 

 kan reindeer herd. It is only under special circumstances that they 

 run away from what they seem to consider danger and they never run 

 from dog or wolf. It is still more rare that they charge — this is prob- 

 ably confined to bulls in the breeding season. In the big Canadian 

 caribou herds bulls at the breeding season will charge men and then are 

 far more dangerous than musk-oxen, while the bull moose has perhaps as 

 large a record of man killing as any animal of North America. When in 

 fear of man or wolf the herds commonly group in a circle, heads facing 

 out, with the calves and young animals in the centre of the ring pro- 

 tected by the others. 



One of the Eskimos now working for us once took and kept for several 

 months a pair of musk-ox calves. They were as tame as dogs, followed 

 the people about and when less than a year old one of them would pull a 

 sled for which several dogs would have been needed. One of the calves 

 was eventually killed by some strange dogs and the other was sold to a 

 ship (whalra:). 



