Being Caribou: Five Months On Foot With An Arctic Herd

by Karsten Heuer

Since time immemorial, the Porcupine caribou herd has ranged the Arctic in a 2,800-mile annual trek between its winter feeding grounds inland and its summer calving grounds on the coastal plain of the Beaufort Sea. In 2003, the caribou were joined on their spring journey, possibly for the first time ever, by two humans: wildlife biologist and writer Karsten Heuer and his wife, filmmaker Leanne Allison.

Where the herd once roamed through unpopulated wilderness, it now treks from one country to another. This may well be its downfall, for under its calving grounds lies enough oil to keep the United States going for six months. Nowadays in Washington, that’s considered a lot of oil, enough to justify imperilling this venerable herd. Determined to let the world know what will be lost if drilling takes place, Heuer and Allison accompanied the 123,000-strong Porcupine caribou for five months in an uncharted course over mountain ranges, through deep snow, and across semi-frozen rivers. En route, the heavily pregnant caribou and heavily laden humans alike were stalked by wolves and grizzlies newly awake from hibernation — and ravenous.

An adventure story like no other, Being Caribou reveals the drama and beauty of the migration and brings home the enormity of the loss that will surely be felt if drilling goes ahead.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Nature, Travel, Memoir, Adventure, Science

256 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2005

About the author

Karsten Heuer is a wildlife biologist, park warden and author of Walking the Big Wild: From Yellowstone to the Yukon on the Grizzly Bear's Trail. He has worked in Banff National Park in the Rockies, in Inuvik in Canada's far north, and in the Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa. He is a recipient of the Wilburforce Foundation Conservation Leadership Award.

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I borrowed this book in a stack of books about Alaska from a friend who is a writer and teaches writing. It lingered for a while, and I pulled it back out for a book speed dating project for Science September.

This book is incredible in a number of ways. Heuer and his wife undertake a journey that most humans could not do. It is five months, thousands of miles, dangerous whether hot or cold, having to feed and shelter themselves. The ways it changes them throughout the journey are well captured by Heuer, even in the strangenesses that must be difficult to communicate. And overall, the writing is fantastic.

I have it on my desk at work and hope to add a few snips before returning it to its owner.

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful story! And what an extraordinary pair of human beings. Karsten is a wildlife biologist and Leanne is a filmmaker. These newlyweds spent five months north of the Arctic Circle, on skis and on foot, following the Porcupine Caribou Herd. One thousand miles round trip!! They endured grizzly bear attacks, near-starvation (six days without a meal to speak of), borderline hypothermia, monster mosquitoes from hell, and just pure exhaustion. With only each other for company, frustration and frayed nerves were inevitable, but they stayed the course.

They were rewarded with the chance to witness caribou cows giving birth, a special connection with the herd, and encounters with wolves, musk oxen, foxes, grizzlies, bighorn sheep, and countless bird species. Not to mention trekking through stunning, nearly untouched wilderness. If you've ever spent time connecting with wilderness and dreaded returning to civilization, you'll understand the tears streaming off my face and down into my cleavage at the end! :0 I felt like I'd been on the journey with them, and I didn't want it to be over.

Unfortunately, the caribou calving grounds sit directly within the "1002 area" of ANWR. This area has long been targeted for oil development by the Bush crime family. A short-sighted solution fueled purely by greed, since U.S. Geological Survey estimates project only 6 to 12 months worth of oil supply after ten years of development prior to extraction.

This book is very well written and superbly edited. They don't bore you with every plodding step of every day, just the most important ones. There's a children's version, about 60-70 pages, mostly photos, so be sure you get the adult one.

There's also a 72-minute Being Caribou DVD of their trip, filmed by Leanne. It doesn't come with the book, but my library had it. It was awarded Best Environmental Film at the 2005 Telluride Mountain Film Festival. I watched the DVD before reading the book, which I recommend. I liked having the images in my mind and a feel for the people when I was reading. If you watch the DVD, don't turn it off when it gets to the credits. There's a funny voice-over right at the end. :)

[Sammy Kutsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe closer to 4.5 stars but I just really enjoyed this book. It inspired me and made me think a lot about wilderness and the limits of us as people. It’s just an incredible endeavor and tale and I am really looking forward to also watching the movie. Caribou!!!! I love them <3

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

In April of 2003, wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer & his new wife, Leanne Allison, set off on an epic journey to follow the Porcupine Caribou herd as it migrated from its Yukon winter range to its endangered calving grounds in the Arctic Nat'l Wildlife Refuge - and back! After over 1,000 miles on foot and skis, physically & mentally exhausted, they walk into a dimension of conciousness neither had experienced before. Being Caribou is more than a story of grand adventure - it's about the roots of human instinct that are still alive in all of us, and how the power of wild landscapes and wild animals can release them from the layers of technology and industrialization that bury them in the modern world.
A Personal Favorite of mine

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written adventure book about "being" caribou -- which became clear that it's the perfect title for this book! I have mad respect for Karsten and his wife gamely going on this extreme journey and dealing with the harsh elements, dangerous landscape, and just unknown of where/how they'd go and end up. Their passion for the caribou -- and the vital habitat -- certainly shone through in this book.

[Chinchilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed most of this book. It drew me in right off the bet with its very beautiful writings. I liked that the author would intermittently insert passages from his original journal. They make the content that much more telling. I could feel his passion for the caribou and nature through his words.

The migratory journey the author and his wife embarked on, was gruesome, courageous, and wondrous. Reading about it makes me want to do something as daring and primitive, though I doubt I will ever be privileged enough to take on such a task. I understood their mission and desire to portray the importance of habitat protection from the perspective of the animals, but it was at times difficult for me to take them seriously. Their naïveté and disconnect with the capitalistic world portrayed in the book was unnerving. As well, the way he talked about becoming caribou themselves, becoming part of the herd, and his wife and his spiritual transformation, to me, casted a shadow on the validity of everything else he wrote about. (I'm not sure why I feel as such thoug.)

I was also quite displeased with their irresponsible choice to travel with any weapons for self-protection. while I do not know if it was due to legal and/or technical challenges that they did not bring a gun with them, but it would have provided them with security (against grizzly bears) and food. It reminded me of Christopher McCandless, who went into the Alaskan wilderness with maps/a compass, from Into The Wild. Yes, that kind of stupidity.

I watched the first bit of the complimentary documentary produced by the author's wife. I'm sorry to say that her voice and the narration just didn't quite work for me. If I were to finish the film, which I might for the footage of caribou itself, I might have to watch it mute.

I would recommend this book to any animal lover or naturalist. Just focus on their actual journey and less on... the rest of the stuff.

[Carol Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

What would it be like to walk with caribou for their whole migration from Canada into Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- and back -- a journey of around 2,000 kilometers? Karsten Heuer and his wife Leanne Allison took that journey, and this is their story. They determined exactly where those 125,000 caribou go to calve: right in the middle of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That is the best area because the forage is good and, at least as important, the soggy ground is inhospitable to bears and wolves that prey on calves.

The journey was incredibly arduous. Heuer and Allison tried to stay as close to the caribou as they could, but the caribou often ran and keeping up was impossible. So they followed the tracks, and kept on catching up with them, sometimes after many discouraging days. The intrepid couple climbed many mountains and slogged through endless wet tundra. A few times they had close encounters of the scary kind with grizzly bears.

They wanted to be like caribou, to live like caribou as much as they could, though of course the researchers carried a tent and food supplies. They spent many days without food, even when they were in the midst of caribou that they conceivably could have shot, but that was not an option for them.

They accomplished their mission of being near the caribou. Allison filmed them. But their work has not been able to prevent the U.S. government from moving ever closer to opening the refuge for oil drilling.

[Lacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t think I’d be into a book about caribou - its just not the kind of animal that I tend to be drawn to (I’m a bird/reptile kind of person). But by the end of the book, I had gained so much respect for these mysterious creatures, not to mention the humans that followed them! The pace was excellent, as was the writing. You’d think that reading about days on the tundra would be a bit bland, but the author’s descriptions gave me the clear view of an environment full of hardships but also of life and determination and beauty in need of preservation.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable travelogue of a couple who followed the Porcupine caribou herd during their migration from arctic Canada to Alaska and back in 2003. The story was a little repetitive toward the beginning, but soon built up into an interesting adventure.

[The Wildlife Center of Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our book clubbers loved this one! Very inspirational and admirable as they undertook this journey to "be" caribou.
https://www.wildlifecenter.org/wildli...

[Noah Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the best books I've read on one of the last true wilderness in the world. let's save the porcupine caribou (and the chinook salmon of the Yukon!)

[Nobody · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good if you're looking for an adventure story, but don't expect to learn much about caribou

[Alisha Billmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible pair Karsen Heuer and his wife Leanna are. I can only look up to them with amazement at what they have achieved in the 5-month feat this book documents.

Being Caribou is an exhilarating, inspiring and touching adventure of the newly wedded couple, following the Porcupine Caribou herd on a 2,800-mile journey from their winter-feeding grounds to their summer calving grounds. Migratory caribou herds are named after their birthing grounds, in this case, the Porcupine River, which runs through a large part of the range of the Porcupine herd. Though numbers fluctuate, the Herd comprises about 218,000 animals (based on a July 2017 photo census).

Being Caribou is the second book I have read recently set on the Alaska/Yukon border. Being Caribou has certainly grown my obsession. There was just SO much I got from this book. I felt fully submersed within the environment the author was in, almost as if I could feel the snow, the rain, the hunger when they were without food and the smells and sounds of the migrating Caribou.

What the couple went through was a feat. One that I know I would never be able to accomplish myself, so of course, I lived vicariously through the author and his wife. They faced starving, curious bears along their way, and armed with nothing but a small knife and bear spray the pair had to use their gut instincts to come out alive. From lucky escapes from hypothermia when they could not find a flat spot to pitch their tent to shelter from the rain and snow to learning to live, as a newly married couple, elbow to elbow with each other, day in and day out in a small tent.

This book made me feel something a book has not done in a while. I felt in some way connected to the Porcupine herd. I read through their difficult migration path, calves losing their mothers to botfly infestations, cows losing calves to bears and the biggest threat of all, our greed for economic growth in the form of oil.

The Porcupine Herds calving grounds are directly on top of the 1002 area, which has long been a target for oil development. This threat is the whole purpose the couple set on this journey to follow the herd's migration route, to show why this can’t happen.

For the sake of the Porcupine Herd and inhabitants of the Yukon, which rely on the Caribou for sustenance, I hope that we can prevent such turmoil from being caused to their essential calving grounds.

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karsten and Leanne set out to follow the Porcupine caribou herd migration not only because of the magical experience Karsten had when he unexpectedly witnessed hundreds if not thousands of caribou migrating while working in the Canadian Northwest Territories, but as he mentions in the prologue, Arctic drilling was being considered (in the early aughts) exactly where this enormous herd calves their young, a place in northeastern Alaska that provides food, safety, and shelter before heading back into Canada.

Let's face it, borders suck, not only for people who are trying to find a better life for themselves and/or their families, but also for animals. Under-reported consequences of the Mex-US border wall claim that many animals have had their migratory routes foreclosed by this heinous apparatus along with habits being wrecked by the construction. Karsten Heur attempted to use an arduous and dangerous journey to not only "be caribou" by following the herd's tempo through its various stages of migration, but to turn these experiences into a political statement about the horrors of drilling oil in the Arctic Circle. Unfortunately, the drilling was approved by Congress despite environmentalists' pleas and since then has done the usual yoyoing back and forth between conservative and liberal administrations. Hence we get headlines such as "Trump proposes to restore drilling in 13M Arctic acres restricted by Biden."

The book takes us full circle from their departure to their return, documenting the extreme hardships this couple faced that parallel the caribou's. Grizzly bears and other predators are pervasive throughout the journey, deadly bug/mosquito swarms that can kill, arduous terrain, unexpected blizzards and hideously cold weather are just some of the obstacles they face. The book does a better job of showing how Karsten and Leeanne cooperated with and befriended the Gwich'in people, seeking and eventually gaining their approval to access the caribou herd. Heuer describes their thousands-year-old spiritual connection to these animals that are also a primary source of food. The documentary that Leeanne created fits more into an adventure story that sadly constructs the Gwich'in as static and one-dimensional whereas the book provides more complex and divisive attitudes about the potential disruption and benefits that drilling would bring.

[Karl Larsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a wildlife biologist I enjoyed the book, appreciating that feeling of sharing space and time with a wild animal. As a wildlife biologist, however, I wanted more details on exactly what the pair wanted to record, observe, detect, etc..... it came across as simply an 'adventure journey' where the main purpose was to collect footage and daily notes so as to make a movie and book that would raise awareness about the plight of the caribou. Nothing wrong with doing that! But after all, satellite collars now give us more precise movement data than we could every collect on foot. I just would've liked their focus on collecting 'awareness info' to be more at the forefront of the book. Also, some smaller things were a bit weird ....why no firearm when venturing into an area of high grizzly activity? I don't like firearms at all...but if I was heading out there, far from help or medical aid...well....
And why get emotionally disturbed at the sight of human hunters taking caribou (for food, it seemed, perhaps also trophy) but not the disembowelment of live caribou at the hands of grizzlies?
Did the book raise awareness of the plight of the caribou? Yes, I believe it did. Congrats to the authors for accomplishing that.

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's impossible to fully convey an experience like this, but Karsten provided great insights into their daring adventure, the lives of caribou, and what it means to be an animal on this planet – human or caribou. I wish he had left the dreams out of it, but I suppose it was part of their truth. You have to be a bit nuts to plan and attempt this trip and I am glad they survived to tell it. I enjoyed the writing, the story, and can recommend this book. I also enjoyed the film, his co-adventurer captured documentary-quality footage despite their limited resources during the 5 months living in this grand and often harsh landscape. I am currently working on Porcupine caribou research, also worked in oil fields, and I feel this story effectively touched on the contradictions arising from our everyday consumer needs and desires, political systems, values, and the real cost of oil, without belaboring the point.

[Gwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. The author and his new wife spend 5 months in the Yukon and Alaska traveling on foot with a herd of female caribou as they migrate many, many miles to their summer calving grounds. Mesmerizing and well-written, I feel I got a glimpse into an arctic world full of the wonder (and chaos) of nature with a lot of focus on the weather, the topography, and the massive endeavor to follow a herd of caribou. A fantastic book.

[Carolyn Whitzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book (which is also a documentary film) is about an environmentalist couple as they spend over five months following a caribou migration in the far north. It is an excellent book, giving a good sense of the endangered ecosystems of Yukon and Alaska as they are threatened by oil exploration. It is also a ripping adventure yarn, featuring encounters with grizzlies, dangerous river crossings and a mystical connection forged with the caribou herd.

[Catherine Symchych · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lyrical passages accent this often gritty portrait of a caribou herd and their journey. Whether he’s describing a dying cow or getting way too close to bulls, I can visualize the scene. That said, I’d like to see the film she made for real visuals that I’m sure outstrip my imagined ones. This book goes on my shelf of nature classics.

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing. I read it in a week. Sometimes adventure book have slow sections but not this one . The writing is amazing and you feel like you are there. You feel the power of their profound experience. Hope that area will not be drilled fir oil . Need to read up to see what is happening as this book was written in 2005

[Aurora Carpenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing insight on a journey not many modern-day people have partaken. Heuer's imagery made me feel as though I was seeing it myself. But I was put off by his obessive personality and treatment of his new wife. He does acknowledge when he'd been short with her but nonetheless put a bad taste in my mouth.

[Sydney caulfeild · Rating 3 out of 5]

“It’s a beauty that can swallow you whole”

“Life in the modern technological world carries none of the subtleties of living with caribou. There’s too much to absorb, too much for sharpened senses to do anything but go dormant if one wants to survive. The instinctual search for tracks the next morning would be the last wild act to run through my body for a very long time.”

[Kristina Ruttan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal adventure read. Amazing writing; hours days weeks of walking across tundra is transformed into can’t-set-it-down reading. Honest without justification or self-glorification - my favorite read. A perfect example of entering a new world by picking up a book.

[Danielle Gibbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much! It is a story of resilience and adventure. I found myself imagining the wild and rugged lands of Yukon and Alaska. I found this very educational without being moralistic. I also appreciate that it was written by a Canadian author.

[Darleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did think it was an incredible walk and was glad the author wrote this book. I think I am a bit jaded with the travel journeys, even though I envy them their youth and vigor to do them.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being Caribou is a fine story of skiing and backpacking in the Arctic. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in adventure or wildlife.

[Inês Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to read but very descriptive of the whole trip. It made me feel like I was there, living what they were living. It is very inspirational.

[Kim Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this amazing story. If you love animals and the outdoors. These two intrepid researchers are amazing.

[Julie L · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-written account of an amazing journey by two incredible people. The story is not just of the caribou, but of Karsten and Leanne's inner journey as well.

[bvm · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning read. Highly recommend.