Being Caribou: Seven Months on Foot with an Arctic Herd

by Karsten Heuer

Book Overview

For eons, female members of the Porcupine caribou herd have made the journey from their winter feeding grounds to their summer calving grounds--which happen to lie on vast reserves of oil. They once... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594850100
• ISBN13: 9781594850103
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books
• Length: 237 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

Excellent resource

As the description states, this is an "adaptation of an adult title by the same name." It's intended for "ages 9-12," and is "48 pages long." It's also a fantastic children's book with amazing pictures and lots of interesting information about caribou. I would recommend it for elementary or middle school kids who are interested in life science, caribou, or the Arctic.

Adventure in a Place Most of us Will Never Visit

It takes a special kind of couple to spend their honeymoon following a herd of caribou across northern Canada and Alaska for four months. Getting used to each other is hard enough, but then to be swimming rivers that are barely free of ice, to climb mountain ranges in the snow, meeting up with grizzly bears that are not overly friendly. They traveled over a thousand miles to study the caribou to produce a film of their migration to the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The flyleaf of the book says that it is an 'Adventure Narrative' and it is. It's also a lot more than that as most of us don't know what the current debate about drilling for oil and gas in the ANWR is all about. Needless to say, as a wildlife biologist the author has very definite views on the subject. The ANWR is a place that most of us will never see. It's a place that most people never heard of. And unfortunately, it's probably a place that will be damaged, if not destroyed in the search for energy. As a congresswoman told the author: 'the bottom line for voters on this issue is cheap gas.' This book is a story of the life of teh animals in the north, and of the people who study them. It's a story worth reading about. Thank you Mr. Heuer for bringing this to our attention.

Being Caribou

Karsten Heuer and his wife, Leanne, follow the Porcupine Herd of caribou in their migration to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Not only an interesting memoir of a journey fraught with difficult ground, mosquitoes and grizzly bears, but a moving account of the many dangers faced by caribou as they struggle to survive -- dangers that will be increased if the ANWR is opened to oil exploration and drilling. Heuer's writing successfully evokes the connection he and Leanne come to feel with the caribou and their alienation from the artificial rush of civilization. The book makes a powerful argument for lasting conservationist values and against destruction for the short-term profit of a few. It seems too much to hope, though, that it will actually be able to do any good.

Moving and Inspiring Tale

Being Caribou was my favorite book of 2005. Not only do you get the adventure story, information on the ANWR oil issues, and a real glimpse of the life of a Porcupine caribou, you also get to know Karsten & Leanne through their journey. I highly recommend as well the film of the journey (available from HeronDance-dot-org and the National Film Board of Canada). I was so moved by it that I bought 6 more copies for holiday gifts. If you enjoy the outdoors, are concerned about the environment, are contemplating a long trip of your own, or simply question the sanity of a newlywed couple who treks across the Arctic for 5 months... check out Being Caribou. It's worth the read.

1st rate adventure tale and environmental lesson about ANWR

Thanks to the Bush administration, the debate about oil drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is still strong in congress. Wanting to have a deeper understanding of the land and the animals that live on it, I picked up Being Caribou last month. Winner of the 2005 Banff Mountain Book Festival grand prize, it is the true account of wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer and filmmaker Leanne Allison, who set out on a five month trek, following the migration of more than 120,000 caribou. It is first and foremost an amazing account of a couple that traveled by foot and by skis - sometimes as much as 20 miles a day - through some pretty unforgiving terrian. I've never been stalked by a grizzly bear, but I now know what it must be like to be faced with one that wants to make you into dinner. The two paid attention to their dreams, listened to the music of the earth, and ultimately learned what it is to "be caribou." More compelling, however, was the information that puts the oil supply in perspective and dispels many of the politician-generated myths about ANWR. Did you know that the supply of oil under ANWR represents a mere 6-month supply of oil for the United States and that it would take ten years or more for it to hit the market? Huh?! Our President wants to destroy the calving grounds for 120,000 animals for a mere 0.3% of world oil production in 2016? The environmental impact - not only to the caribou and other animals, but to the land itself - is also quite interesting. We don't hear about it, but Prudhoe Bay has an average of one oil spill a day. Geez! The book is a quick read, and I'd highly recommend it. If you don't have time for the whole meal deal, though, you can get a reader's digest version of their trek and the issues surrounding drilling in ANWR from the Web at beingcaribou - dot - com.