The satellite map shows the movements of the Rivière-aux-Feuilles caribou herd and Rivière-George herd. Only caribou aged at least 1 year old are tracked. The map provides evolutionary data, as caribou move continuously over their northern ranges. The arrows show the direction of movement since the latest location. Explanations and cautions about interpreting migratory data on caribou appear below.
The maps do not represent the actual herd distribution. They only provide a very approximate idea of caribou migration :
only 100 satellite collars are used to track a population of about one million caribou;
a caribou equipped with a satellite collar can travel up to 350 km between satellite signal reception and map publication;
the detection of a collar provides no information as to the number of caribou in a given sector;
these maps should not be used for your navigation purposes in the North.
IMPORTANT
The Department would like to recall that the use of satellite telemetry was implemented first and foremost to allow scientists to monitor caribou migrations and to enable them to study the various aspects of caribou biology in order to ensure the conservation of this species.
The location data for migratory caribou fitted with satellite collars should never be used by the public to maximize hunting success.
We ask hunters to be vigilant to avoid killing caribou fitted with collars due to the ensuing major drawbacks in the monitoring process and the adverse effects on the accuracy of the results.
A new map will be put on line on Wednesday of each week.
