Experience Québec
Sports and adventure
King of the island
A splendid mammal with a white belly and posterior, the elegant and nimble white-tailed deer lives in the breathtakingly beautiful setting of Anticosti Island. Reigning over a kingdom 17 times larger than the island of Montreal, the deer has acquired a worldwide reputation among enthusiasts of sport hunting.
On an island paradise where beavers, hares, foxes and moose share space -- not to mention 200 species of birds, including the majestic bald eagle -- the white-tail deer is king. But its position on the Anticosti throne is not due to natural selection. Some 3,500 years ago, Anticosti Island was nicknamed Notiskuan by the Native Indians, a word that means "place where the bear is hunted".
It was Henri Menier, a wealthy French chocolate manufacturer and passionate hunter, who first stocked the island. In 1896, he introduced about 220 deer to his holding. Because of its capacity for adaptation and the fact that it had few predators or rivals, the deer soon became the symbol of the island.A real army
The current deer population exceeds 120,000, making it the highest concentration of white-tailed deer in eastern North America. However, that number is too high according to the biologists with the Ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune (MRNF, Quebec’s wildlife and parks society), who fear that deer appetites can hamper the regeneration of certain species of flora.
As such, deer hunting has become the main pursuit on Anticosti, where hunters have the best success rate in North America (± 85 %). Each group of four hunters is assigned a specific 50 km2 area in which to practice their favourite leisure activity. Specialized equipment and experienced guides ensure that excursions in the forest are done safely.Lending your rifle to science
Sépaq Anticosti, Fapaq, the department of Natural Resources and Université Laval invite hunters to an experimental hunt. Two vast territories (one 16 km2 and the other, 30 km2) containing 200 to 250 animals were created in 2002 to study the effects of grazing on Anticosti vegetation. Depending on the territory, each hunter is permitted two or three deer. A unique opportunity!* * Sign up with Sépaq Anticosti.
| The call of the wild |
 Packages including air transportation from Sept-Îles or Mont-Joli, along with a motor vehicle for use on the island, are available from Sépaq Anticosti. The packages (American or European versions) also offer an exclusive territory for bow hunting, black powder hunting, on horseback or in ATV, as well as the chance to hunt moose and fish for trout and Atlantic salmon.All of the camps, chalets and pavilions are located by the sea or rivers. You can also add other activities to the sojourn: wildlife observation, horseback riding, diving, canoeing, kayaking, hiking and boat cruises. |
Guillaume Rivard
Photos: Photo: Sépaq
2009-07-15
