Zoology Collection - Caribou Antlers

When Caribou Were Common

Plenty of Woodland Caribou (Rangifer tarandus)and no Nova Scotia Museum – that was the state of affairs when William Chearnley donated this magnificent collection of antlers to the Halifax Mechanics Institute sometime in the mid-19th century. Chearnley was a dedicated outdoorsman and, in 1853, became founding president of the Halifax Wildlife Association, the oldest wildlife organization in North America. His antler collection survived – transferred to the new Nova Scotia Museum in the 1860s. Unfortunately, the caribou didn’t fare so well. By the 1920s, the Woodland Caribou, once so common in Nova Scotia, was gone.