The boys are back in town

Christmas is over - but Rudolph and his relatives don't seem to be interested in moving on.

Instead, they've taken over a farming community off New Bay Road just outside Grand Falls-Windsor. And they're posing some challenges for the people there trying to grow crops like carrots and cabbages.

Woodland caribou populations are on the decline in the province, according to the provincial Department of Environment and Conservation, but a small migrating caribou herd, Newfoundland's version of reindeer, has been taking up winter residence in Wooddale.

Wildlife official Blair Barnes has been checking on the herd, who he last counted at 67 animals on his most recent visit. However, other observers have reported numbers as high as 150.

The caribou have been coming back to the community over the past six years. They are originally from the herd at Hodges Hill, a mountain near Grand Falls-Windsor. Actually, said Barnes, it isn't a single big herd in this region, but several smaller pockets.

Some of the animals show up at Wooddale between October and November, while more of the herd make their way later in the fall and winter.

"As the years go by, it seems like there's more and more coming," said Barnes. "It's almost like they're telling their buddies, ‘there's good grub down on this farm, follow me.'"

There are three reasons for the caribou making Wooddale their migratory home, he said. First is the amount of snow on Hodges Hill, meaning the caribou find it more difficult to access their food source. The snow on Hodges Hill is "unreal," said Barnes, with deep, heavy amounts that the caribou find difficult to navigate through.

Second is that Wooddale is relatively sheltered, a good location for the animals to hide from predators such as coyotes, according to the wildlife official.

Another factor is the crops of carrots, other root vegetables and cabbage Wooddale farmers harvest in the fall.

That last point is what Wooddale farmers aren't pleased with: the appearance of the caribou in their fields.

The Fudge family grows a variety of vegetables on their fields in Wooddale, and for the past six or seven years, they have been dealing with the growing population of woodland caribou on their lands. Kent Fudge has been living in Wooddale for the past 34 years, but he said he had never seen them in numbers like this.

"I think the coyotes got them drove, because every night you can hear them on the bridge, howling," he said. "If you go out on skidoo, you can see the coyote tracks behind the caribou herd, following."

He added in the first year the animals were seen, only five or six caribou were seen. The Fudges contacted the wildlife division about the animals; officials visited the farm and expressed interest in tranquillizing and transporting the caribou back to their original herd because they feared what could happen to the animals if coyotes attacked them.

Fudge said the Wooddale numbers have grown substantially since then. "I've counted over 150 on the field at one time, but then you go down to another field, and there's another 50 or 60 there."

He added the caribou are creating problems for the Wooddale farmers, because they eat the crops when they arrive in October.

"Right now, they're eating stuff that's leftover, but we haven't had hardly anything, because we don't start harvesting until Thanksgiving," said Fudge.

"They could eat $20,000-$30,000 in crops a year, and that's just from mine and my brother's farm. And we have people out picking crops, but they don't feel safe, because the caribou are there, and the animals are that used to us being there."

http://www.gfwadvertiser.ca/News/2012-01-16/article-2865146/The-boys-are-back-in-town/1