Yukon photographer films caribou carrying a dead rival locked in its antlers

WHITEHORSE —

A Yukon wildlife photographer has filmed a rare scene in the mountains south of Whitehorse: a bull caribou carrying the carcass of a rival whose antlers had locked with its own. ¹

Peter Mather spent 10 days in early October filming the caribou rut on the traditional territory of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, as part of a project with the Southern Lakes Caribou Recovery Plan. ¹²

A clue from the bears

The first hint came from a bear acting unusually aggressive. “It was huffing and puffing and making noises and we had to scare it off,” Mather said. When a second bear came through, he suspected a dead caribou was nearby and sent up a drone. ¹

“I was just shocked to see … there's two caribou with their antlers locked together, and one of them is dead,” he said. He watched the surviving bull scare off a bear that tried to attack it. ¹

For four days, foxes, ravens and golden eagles fed on the carcass while it was still attached to the living animal. On the last day a wolf pack arrived, and Mather believes the wolves ate much of what remained. ¹

“In some ways, [they] kind of freed up this other caribou who could kind of walk away at the end, with two heads,” he said. After the wolves came, the bull disappeared and Mather could not find it again. ¹

Not unheard of

Lars Jessup, a biologist with the Southern Lakes Caribou Recovery Project, said the rut is “the most dangerous time of year for bull caribou,” because the bulls work hard and predators are usually around. ¹

He said locked antlers are somewhat common, and skulls and skeletons of caribou joined this way have been found before. “It's probably more common that when that happens that they both die, not that one of them would live,” he said, calling the survivor “lucky.” ¹

Jessup said the bull should drop its antlers within a month or so and “should be fine through winter.” ¹

A herd in recovery

The animal belongs to the Ibex herd, one of four herds that make up the Southern Lakes caribou, which a recovery project has protected for more than 30 years. Jessup said the herds have recovered well over three decades, but there is concern because few calves have been seen in the past five years. ¹

For Mather, the surviving bull is “a metaphor for the whole herd, that he's just resilient.” ¹

Sources

1. CBC News: Yukon photographer captures footage of caribou carrying dead rival in its antlers (Julia Parrish)
2. CBC.ca video: Yukon photographer captures caribou carrying remains after antler entanglement

This article was reported and written by Ethan Clarke and edited by Daniel Okafor. It draws on the sources above, which are credited in the text. Our standards · Report an error