[at-l] smokies elk; et. al.

[Tim.Hewitt@fairchildsemi.com (Tim Hewitt)]

Snodrog5@aol.com wrote:

> They tried re-introducing caribou (or was it elk?) into Baxter State Park a
> few decades ago. Raised them at UMO in pens, and airlifted them onto
> Katahdin's tableland. They were the migratory kind, so they left. The folks
> in Millinocket ate well that winter.

They were Woodland Caribou, and one of the reasons that they think they left
was food. The caribou were originally driven out of Maine in part by a
fungus that destroyed their natural food supply - a kind of lichen/moss that
is now hard to find in Maine. It's their preferred food supply, and it's no
longer in Maine, so they left...

Those that did not feed the locals of course. Subsistence hunting is big in
Northern Maine, as it is in many depressed rural areas. Deer and Moose are
plentiful and easy to hunt year round. It's certainly not out of the
question that the caribou were added to this list of walking food items.

-Paddler