Caribou Hunt, Arctic Foxes and Sunsets

I took Craig to work yesterday afternoon as I wanted the truck to drive around and take pictures.  Alot of the residents of Cambridge Bay are heading out into the tundra to hunt caribou.  This is one of their main meat sources and they hunt at this time as the caribou are moving to the mainland.  Rosie, one of the bank's employees and an Inuit lady informed me yesterday that the caribou move to the mainland when the ice forms and head back here around May to calf.  This migration is very interesting to me.  I am not offended or sickened by the way they harvest the caribou or musk ox for that matter as I grew up with a father that was a hunter/trapper.  I understand that they do this as a necessity, to feed their families.

It was a great day as the sun came out in the afternoon and it made for some great pictures by the ice.  Hard to tell when the sun rises and sets these days as it is not showing it's face too much.  Did notice that by 5pm it is getting dark.

After coming home from taking pictures there was a message on the machine from Craig stating that he sees a herd of musk oxen close to the water lake (lake where we get our water from).  So on goes the coat and boots again and off I go.  I do see the herd but they are a far distance away so I could not get a picture of them.  I decided to head to the dump to see if I could get a better view and much to my surprise I came across a family of 9 Arctic foxes.  Needless to say the herd was not on my mind after this.  They were very curious of me and came about 15 feet from me.  One was very funny as he barked at my every move.  5pm was coming soon and I needed to pick up Craig so I headed to the site to pick him up and then proceeded back to the foxes.  They are smaller than our red foxes back home; probably a little less than Molly.

I understand that some people may be offended by some of tonight's pictures but I want to show you the true Arctic way of life and hunting is part of that.  They have been doing this for generations, way before we came into the picture. 

Some pictures contain scenes of Arctic life - viewer discretion is advised.

Talk soon!