WATERFOWL BREEDING GROUND SURVEY IN NORTHERN ALBERTA, THE 
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES, AND THE YUKON 
1953 
Robert H. Smith and Everett L. Sutton 
Introduction 
This report covers the sixth consecutive aerial survey of waterfowl populations 
in northern Alberta, northern Yukon, and parts of the Northwest Territories. Our 
objective was to obtain comparative data of breeding waterfowl populations of broad 
habitat categories and to do exploratory work in areas not previously surveyed. By 
following this procedure we hope to eventually obtain complete coverage of the far 
northern breeding grounds and at the same time collect comparative data useful 
in formulating regulations. 
The writers began the population surveys on June 5 just north of latitude 54°N. 
in eastern Alberta, working on down through the MacKenzie River drainage to the 
Arctic coast, and in addition covering northern Yukon territory and the Anderson 
River drainage. These surveys were completed on June 27 at Aklavik, Northwest 
Territories, 
Due to delays caused by bad weather and repairs to the aircraft, the exploratory 
work was not begun until July 13. Surveys were run on the Thelon River from near its 
source to Baker Lake, on the south coast and south central sections of Victoria Island, 
on the drainage systems of the Perry, Ellice, and Kugaruk Rivers, and on Pelly and 
Garry Lakes on the upper Back River. This phase of the work was concluded at 
Churchill, Manitoba, on July 27. 
Methods Used in Sampling and Areas Covered 
The techniques employed in the population surveys have not changed since they 
were begun in 1948, but intensity of sampling was increased in most areas to meet 
certain prescribed standards of accuracy. The brood surveys were discarded in 
favor of the exploratory work as it was felt that the latter was most important, and 
the time factor did not permit both. ’ 
The accompanying map illustrates the areas sampled and routes flown. The 
areas covered for the first time, with the exception of the Closed Forest strata of 
northern Alberta, are primarily goose-breeding areas, and total goose counts were 
made on the Thelon River drainage from Eyeberry Lake through Aberdeen Lake, 
Pelly and Garry Lakes on the Back River drainage, and on the Perry, Ellice, and 
Kugaruk Rivers draining north to Queen Maud Gulf. We believe that such counts will 
provide better indices to goose-breeding populations than random sampling across 
areas of scattered nesting, as most geese bring their broods to the larger rivers 
during the brooding season. 
Thelon River, one of the principal rivers draining into Hudson Bay, heads in 
the rocky Precambrian plateau east and south of Great Slave Lake. Above its 
junction with the Darrell it runs through rough, rocky terrain; below there, it winds 
through broad tundra meadows with patches of spruce timber scattered throughout 
