After reading Tom Miranda's Super Slam, he stated that the herds were extremely low in North America. I was always under the impression that there were millions of them. What has happened to them? Over hunting? "climate change"? nature taking its course?
Up here in BC, we have a wolf overpopulation coupled with loss of habitat. I hear stories of certain persons hunting them out of season and no regard to bag limits. Can't prove it yet.
Very dramatic decline in the George River herd.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/george-river-caribou-population-continues-alarming-decline-1.2737260
Different herds ebb and flow in populations. There can be monstrous differences in numbers. One year huge numbers and in a short period a hard crash. Don't assume the place to go is where your buddy was covered in animals two years earlier.
I think I remember reading that some places were now closed to hunting caribou.
When I lived in AK, they were there others days it was as if they were swallowed by tundra. And I lived on an island!