Being Caribou

For eons, female members of the Porcupine caribou herd have made the 2,800-mile journey from their winter feeding grounds to their summer calving grounds. They once roamed borderless wilderness; now they trek from Canada, where they're protected, to the United States, where they are not. What's more, beneath the calving grounds lay vast reserves of oil. Determined to convey both the enormity of the caribous' migration and the delicacy of their habitat, Karsten Heuer and his wife spent their honeymoon following the herd. For five months, they traveled an uncharted course on foot over mountains, through snow, and across frozen rivers, with only three semi-scheduled food drops for support. As with the caribou, Heuer and his wife faced dwindling fat reserves and stalking by ravenous grizzlies and wolves just awakened from hibernation. Both a rousing adventure story and a sober ecological meditation, Being Caribou vividly conveys this magnificent animal's world.

In one of the earth's most amazing migrations, more than 100,000 caribou trek thousands of miles each year over high mountain ranges, through snowy passes, and across icy rivers. But they have to battle more than just the brutal elements. Hungry wolves, huge grizzly bears, human hunters, and hordes of bloodthirsty insects besiege the herd as it travels to its one safe haven—Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. There, those that survive the trip have a few peaceful weeks to give birth and prepare their calves for the harsh year ahead. Karsten Heuer and his wife, Leanne Allison, are the only humans ever to become part of a caribou herd and join it on its arduous journey. They shared the same mind-numbing cold, the endless miles of physical hardship, and all the dangers along the route to chronicle the epic battle for survival these animals face. To keep up, they had to move, act, and even think like caribou. Karsten and Leanne's incredible adventure gives us a window into a world that we have never seen before.

"Joe and Cody are brothers who follow the caribou (ateek) all year long. Joe plays the accordion (kitoochigan) and Cody dances to entice the wandering caribou. But when thousands of caribou heed their call, the boys become part of a magical adventure."--Page 4 of cover.

"If the caribou die, then we die." These few words speak eloquently to the significanceof caribou for northern peoples. They were spoken not by a wise old chief, but by a 13-year-old Dene youth in 2007 during a hearing regarding uranium exploration on the caribou wintering grounds. Right now there is urgent, widespread concern about the future of the most centralof species: caribou. Caribou and the North brings both the facts and the feelingsof the current situation to a North American readership. The writers look at why we need to conserve the caribou, the threats that have faced caribou in the past, present, and future, and the actions that we can take. Also included is an appendixwith up-to-date information on the range, movements, habitats, numbers, population trends, and key threats to caribou in North America.

How a caribou population went from the brink of extinction in the 1950s to the largest herd in the world in the late 1980s - and whether it can survive today's environmental changes.

Introduces the caribou, describing their physical characteristics, eating habits, and migratory behavior.

Follows Karsten Heuer as he tracks the Porcupine caribou herd through Northern Canada.

In Moving Environments: Affect, Emotion, Ecology, and Film, international scholars investigate how films portray human emotional relationships with the more-than-human world and how such films act upon their viewers’ emotions. Emotion and affect are the basic mechanisms that connect us to our environment, shape our knowledge, and motivate our actions. Contributors explore how film represents and shapes human emotion in relation to different environments and what role time, place, and genre play in these affective processes. Individual essays resituate well-researched environmental films such as An Inconvenient Truth and March of the Penguins by paying close attention to their emotionalizing strategies, and bring to our attention the affective qualities of films that have so far received little attention from ecocritics, such as Stan Brakhage’s Dog Star Man. The collection opens a new discursive space at the disciplinary intersection of film studies, affect studies, and a growing body of ecocritical scholarship. It will be of interest not only to scholars and students working in the field of ecocriticism and the environmental humanities, but for everyone with an interest in our emotional responses to film.