Coastal Elders say they can’t remember a spring with this much snow. The migration is running about two weeks behind. Geese are flying lower because the ground is still frozen — and the hunting has actually been better than recent years because of it.
In a new piece for The Nation, Patrick Quinn brings together the science, the stories, and a quiet moment of recognition: McGill post-doctoral researcher Frédéric LeTourneux, who leads the project, acknowledges that the Cree practice of pinching a goose’s belly to gauge fat reserves may work better than the research team’s standard method.
The full story covers what hunters and researchers are seeing this Goose Break, how CHCRP is gathering data with Eeyouch land users, and what these shifting migration patterns may mean.