INFORMATION SOURCES

The people of Old Crow have a rich heritage of knowledge of the birds of the Old Crow Basin based on contemporary, historical, and traditional hunting over a wide area including Vuntut National Park. Although a comprehensive compilation (recording) of this local knowledge is only now in progress, some traditional knowledge of birds has been recorded by various researchers, explorers, and visitors to the area. This chapter incorporates only such traditional knowledge that has been published or appears in widely distributed unpublished reports. Among the sources of published traditional knowledge are: Osgoode (1936), Irving (1958 and 1960), Balikci (1963), and Part of the Land, Part of the Water (McClellan 1987). Balikci (1963) collected information on the distribution and use of birds from the people of Old Crow in 1961. The Land Still Speaks (Sherry and the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation 1999) contains chapters dedicated to trapping, caribou, plants, and fish, however, there is very little information on birds.

Gwitchin (Tukudh) names of birds used here are taken from Sherry and the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation (1999). These are virtually the same as those provided to Klassen (1997?) by the Vuntut Gwitchin Renewable Resources Council (Appendix I). For species not named in Sherry and the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation (1999), I have used the names provided to Irving in 1957 by Joe Kay (Kyikavichik) and other Elders as published in Irving (1958 and 1960).

Beyond the traditional knowledge held by the Vuntut Gwitchin, other sources of information on birds are limited. The journals, reports, and books of visiting missionaries, trappers, RCMP officers, and government officials do not provide much useful information on birds.

Alexander Murray (1847) prepared notes on birds and mammals along the Porcupine River, and provided the early naturalist John Richardson with information on the great spring migrations of birds passing through the upper Yukon and lower Porcupine Valleys (Irving 1960).

During the 1911-1912 International Boundary survey, Frederick Lambart (Dominion Land Surveyor) of the Canadian section and M. W. Pope of the United States section made notes on the birds and mammals encountered by the survey (International Boundary Commission 1918). A number of specimens were collected along the boundary north of Rampart House and from Crow Base, a major camp set up where the Old Crow River crosses the boundary. The specimens are now in the Canadian Museum of Nature collections (Rand 1946).

During the summer of 1926, Olaus J. Murie of the U.S. Biological Survey banded birds in the Old Crow River area, according to the "National Parks Bureau" bird-banding records (Rand 1946). Murie also collected specimens on the Porcupine and Old Crow Rivers and published his observations on chickadees (Murie 1928).

According to the "National Parks Bureau" bird-banding records, Mrs. A. B. Thornthwaite of Old Crow banded 151 individuals of six species of passerine birds in 1930, and two individuals of one species in 1931 (Rand 1946).

In 1952 University of Alaska palaeontologist, Otto Geist, accompanied by Peter Lord and Charlie Linklater of Old Crow, explored the Old Crow River from its mouth to its headwaters at Ammerman Mountain in a river boat (Geist 1955). Although their major purpose was to collect Pleistocene mammal fossils, Geist also made some observations of birds and mammals along the river.

In a major work on arctic birds based on field work conducted in Alaska and in Old Crow in 1957, Laurence Irving (1960) described many details on the breeding ecology and habits of the birds of Old Crow. A great deal of information was provided to Irving by former chief Joe (Kay) Kyikavichik. Robert Bruce was employed as guide and hunter and Edith Josie helped in the preparation of specimen skins. Over 400 specimens of birds were prepared for the U.S. National Museum and a private collector. Most of the information presented is from the vicinity of the village of Old Crow, with only limited information from the Old Crow Flats.

Beginning in 1966, C. Richard (Dick) Harington, palaeontologist with the Canadian Museum of Nature, studied and collected pleistocene mammal fossils along the Old Crow River (Harington 1961). He also kept notes on birds and mammals observed during his studies (Harington 1974).

In the 1970s some information on bird distribution and ecology appeared in reports prepared for the Canadian Arctic Gas Pipeline. Jakimchuk et al. 1971 present incidental information on several species of birds as part of a summary of ecological studies of the Porcupine caribou. Stager (1974) studied the general use of birds as food by the people of Old Crow.

The 1970s and 1980s saw continued research by Government of the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Branch (Yukon Game Branch) on the waterfowl of the Old Crow Flats. David Mossop's work on waterfowl began in 1975 after preliminary work in the summer of 1974. Nesting studies, brood counts, aerial surveys, banding, vegetation classification, and aerial surveys, though concentrated on the area south of Vuntut National Park (south of the Old Crow River), extended into the Flats north of the Old Crow River and within the Old Crow Flats Special Management Area. Ground surveys and camps were all located south of the Old Crow River. Summaries of bird observations in the Old Crow Flats were published in several years, (e.g., Mossop 1974, 1975, 1976).

Remote sensing data was used in a study between 1974 and 1978 to determine relationships between the timing and duration of ice breakup and productivity of waterfowl, especially diving ducks (Russell et al. 1978).

Birds of prey, particularly the gyrfalcon and peregrine falcon, have been monitored in the Old Crow Basin on an irregular basis since the early 1960s and on an annual basis between 1973 and at least 1991 (Mossop and Mowat 1990, Mossop 1978, 1979). Surveys of nest sites and breeding pairs were carried out within the Porcupine River drainage, and included the Old Crow River.

The U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service has conducted annual aerial surveys of waterfowl populations on the Old Crow Flats since 1955 as part of a 30-year study of waterfowl breeding populations in Alaska and the Yukon (Conant and Dau 1990, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 2000).

The Birds of the Yukon project was initiated by the Canadian Wildlife Service in 1989 to compile information on the distribution and ecology of Yukon birds. The Birds of the Yukon database, which is current to 1998, contains records of 130 species from the Old Crow Flats Special Management Area and Vuntut National Park.

A three-year cooperative study of waterfowl and habitats on the Old Crow Flats (south of the Old Crow River by the Canadian Wildlife Service and the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation began in 1994 (Hawkings and Hughes 1995, Hawkings 1999). Various parts of this study are particularly relevant to Vuntut National Park, including vegetation mapping using satellite imagery (Hawkings 1999), studies of goldeneye populations (van de Wetering 1997), and traditional knowledge of waterfowl and the Old Crow Flats.

A survey of land birds in Ivvavik National Park (Anne C. Holcroft Weerstra Biota Consultants 1997) confirmed the presence of 143 species in that Park. Two of the eleven study areas surveyed are of particular relevance to Vuntut National Park because of their similarity and proximity: Muskeg Creek (near the Firth River) and Cottonwood Creek (near the Babbage River).

A recent archaeological study of traditional land use patterns in the southwestern part of the Old Crow Flats provides additional information on the extent and nature of the utilization of birds by the Vuntut Gwitchin in late prehistoric/historic time (Fafard 1999), following an earlier summary by R. Morlan (1973).

In June 1998 and June 1999 Parks Canada staff conducted land birds surveys in the Old Crow Basin Ecoregion area of Vuntut National Park (Henry et al. 2000). This study documented 81 birds for Vuntut National Park (see Appendix III) and provides information on habitat associations.