42 BTJLLETIX 1089, U. S, DEPAETMEXT OF AGRICrXTURE. 



summer corral is used largely for marking, castrating, and counting 

 and the winter corral for separating purposes and for cutting ou 

 animals for slaughter. 



Many of the bad features under the present methods of corrallin/ 

 can be overcome by building proper chutes connected with the cor 

 rals. The time now taken in separating a herd by the roping metho( 

 is much too long. In one case, a herd was worked 9 hours on eac] 

 of two days, with 5 to 6 men roping, and then only 234 reindee 

 were handled. In another case during the winter a herd was hel( 

 in a corral during severe weather and starved for 48 hours. Whei 

 to this period the collecting and driving of the herd is added it cai 

 be readily seen that much injury must have resulted to the animals 



If reindeer are handled in too small an inclosure, the warmth o 

 their bodies soon causes the surface of the ground to thaw and thi 

 later freezes and becomes icy, resulting in many injuries to th 

 animals from slipping and falling. If there are sticks and stump 

 projecting through the snow, as is frequently the case, ribs and leg 

 are sometimes broken. When the corral is too small some of th 

 animals may be trampled, and this results in many losses. In th 

 second case mentioned above, of 1,443 deer handled during th 

 48-hour period. 11 deer were accidentally killed and a great man 

 injured. Under present methods the owners regard these losses a 

 an unavoidable part of a round-up. With proper corrals, howevei 

 such losses may be almost entirely prevented. 



A diagram of a highly successful type of corral in use at Buct 

 land River. Alaska, for overcoming the present drawbacks i 

 handling, is shown in Figure 2. In a corral of this type used in tli 

 Kotzebue Sound district during the marking season of 1921, a larg 

 herd was put through in 10^' hours and a total of 1,680 fawr 

 marked. In another case, at Golovin, 1,250 animals were marke 

 (ears notched and buttoned) in 14f hours. The corral illustrated i 

 exceptionally large, being made to hold 10,000 reindeer. A corr£ 

 of about half this capacity should suffice for the average Alaska 

 herd. 



The sej)arating pens, or pockets, on either side of the entrance t 

 the connecting chute form a special feature of this type of corra 

 By their use sections of a milling herd may be detached and pi: 

 through the chute as needed. The pockets are merely partitioned o 

 from the corral by " hooks," made in three sections at angles, whic 

 keep the detached part of the herd from rejoining the others, b 

 turning the leaders away from the entrance, so that the animals mi 

 in the pocket until the excitement due to imprisonment has subsidec 

 Without the hooks it would be almost impossible to handle the laf 

 animals in the corral and the leaders would become wild and refus 



