Quebec Caribou Update November 2010

As many of you have heard Labrador closed it's caribou season this year and at this time it appears they will not open for the 2011 season. This has lead to many questions from hunters regarding the Quebec caribou hunts for next season.

I just got off the phone with Alain Tardif, owner of Leaf River Lodge in Northern Quebec and have been given a good overview of the caribou issue. We have arranged trophy caribou hunts with Alain for seven years with fantastic results which is why he is one of the few outfitters we still work with outside of Africa.

Laval University in Quebec finished up an extensive study on the Leaf River and George River herds on Friday. The Leaf River herd, which Alain hunts, appears to be in good shape. The average size of the caribou was up a little over previous years and female to young ratio was up as well. The issue, (lack of caribou) suffered by some hunting operators seems to be location of the herd rather than the numbers. The climate for the past two years in Northern Quebec has been unseasonably warm delaying the migration of the herds. There has been a few outfitters that have had camps in the southern range of the caribou that are now closing their operations.

Leaf River Lodge is one of the most northerly located outfitters in Quebec, (250 miles north of Lake Pua, or Caniapiscau) and until this year has never experienced a lack of caribou in their area during the season. This year they were forced to close their most southerly camps due to the lack of caribou, and operated strictly out of their main lodge on the Leaf River itself. This allowed them to still maintain a high success rate but was costly do to the added expense of floatplanes required to move the clients.


On November 19th Alain will be meeting with the government of Quebec in order to get the details regarding changes, if any, that will affect next years season. One of the changes that is possible is the reduction of the two caribou per hunter limit down to one. The caribou season is open until October 30th but they have not offered hunts beyond the end of September due to the harsh weather. If the weather pattern continues to hold it appears we will be offering hunts until October 15th for the 2011 season. Alain has also secured additional camps that are located ninety miles north of his current Leaf River Lodge. These camps are going to be used as a backup in the case of mild weather slowing the southern migration of caribou again.
I do not have specific information regarding the George River herd but will send an update as I receive further information.

We are dedicated to providing our hunters with quality hunts in areas that hold trophy quality game. With this in mind we are not making any firm commitments on our trophy caribou hunts until we receive another update from Alain regarding the 2011 season.

If you are interested or were planning on a caribou hunt next year please contact us and we will put you on a list of potential hunters.
Once we have confirmed the actual season dates and confident all is set with the new camps to the north we will contact you. You will at that time have the option of finalizing your booking or choose not to go forward.

The bookings will be offered in the order that we received the initial contact.

Thanks for allowing us the opportunity to keep you updated and feel free to forward this message.