A familiar howl across the north

Marie-Anick, one of Inuvik’s premiere mushers was at the controls of her skidoo as the 13-strong team kept a constant 30km/hr pace through the spruce and willows.  Last month I adopted “Casper” from her, a 4-year old husky-pointer-greyhound mix, and since have been acclimatizing him to life in Inuvik – a relatively boring existence away from a 40-odd dog yard.
I’m here in Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, working closely with communities and scientists as part of WWF’s Arctic Program.  Some of our Arctic work is highlighted in some great blog posts. One area of focus is the Mackenzie River Delta, and what better way to explore this region than by dogsled?

Dan and “Casper” near Inuvik, NWT.
Sled dogs have a strong and proud tradition in the North.  While most became familiar to sled dogs through Jack London’s “Call of the Wild” or the Alaskan Iditarod race, sled dogs have been used by the Inuit since time immemorial.  Before the arrival of the snow machines in the 1960s, dog teams were kept by nearly every Inuit hunter, and were essential for travel and survival in the Arctic.  A dog team would pull a hunter’s sled (“komatik”) over sea ice, using their senses to gauge the safety of the ice conditions, and were capable of tracking a seal hole from a great distance.  Dogs would also alert hunters of polar bears encroaching in the darkness, and were occasionally used when hunting bears.  At night, when braving -40°C or colder conditions, dogs would keep their owners warm, and the owners would re-pay them with energy rich seal meat and blubber (“uqsuq”).  Keeping a dog team required knowledge, courage, and a lot of work.  But having dogs meant freedom, mobility, food security, and safety- they were an essential tool for human existence in the Arctic.
As government policy and new technologies pressured Inuit to abandon dog teams for snowmobiles, the continuation of the dog sled heritage was threatened.   By 1970, the number of Inuit Sled Dogs had dwindled to less than 200 animals, down from an estimated 20,000 in 1920. In 1972, Bill Carpenter, (a future Conservation Director of WWF-Canada in the Northwest Territories) and John McGrath began the Canadian Eskimo Dog Research Foundation in Yellowknife, NWT to save the breed and re-establish their numbers. In 2000, Nunavut officially adopted the “Canadian Inuit Dog” or “qimmiq” as the animal symbol of the territory. For some years following, sled dog teams remained in use for subsistence and guided polar bear hunts by the Inuit. Since the cost of maintaining a full team is very high, many hunters have abandoned their teams, though some still keep dogs for personal interest or for guiding tourists and hunters.
Though “Casper” isn’t a traditional Inuit Sled Dog (he looks more like a polar bear), something can be said about the relationship between Northerners and their dogs, and the familiar howls that carry through the crisp arctic air.