Hunters Guide

Northwest Territories · NWT Hunter Education

NWT Hunter Education Practice Exam

By Hunters Guide. Last reviewed September 30, 2026.

The NWT marks Hunter Education module by module, and each module quiz needs at least 75% to pass. 60 practice questions, 7 topics, every answer explained.

NWT Hunter Education Practice Exam: all 60 questions

  1. 1A band of caribou files past below you and your partner is already up and swinging on the nearest animal. Module 1 keeps circling back to the idea of taking time. What is taking time actually buying you here?

    1. A proper look at the animal, a rest you can hold, and a shot you're sure of instead of a hurried one that wounds
    2. A better chance the animals bunch up so two can be taken with one shot
    3. Time for the herd to walk closer, which is always the goal
    4. A chance to get your photographs before the shot
    Show the answer

    A proper look at the animal, a rest you can hold, and a shot you're sure of instead of a hurried one that wounds

    Hurry never pays at a caribou crossing. The animals are moving, your heart's going, and the pull is to shoot the first one that clears the willows. Slow down, and in a second or two you've got three things you didn't have before. A clear view of what the animal is and what's behind it. Something solid to rest on. A body that's stopped shaking. Each of those raises the odds of a clean kill. The hunter who fires first isn't the one who eats first; usually he's the one spending the rest of the afternoon following blood.

  2. 2You shoot at a bull moose on the edge of a willow flat, it lurches and disappears, and the light is nearly gone. Your partner says the shot looked low and suggests heading back to camp. What does respect for the animal ask of you?

    1. Leave it, because a low shot rarely does enough damage to matter
    2. Wait for the next trip out, when snow will make the tracking easier
    3. Fire again into the willows in the direction it went
    4. Mark where it was standing, get lights and help if you need them, and keep looking until you've actually settled whether it's hit
    Show the answer

    Mark where it was standing, get lights and help if you need them, and keep looking until you've actually settled whether it's hit

    Once you pull the trigger, that animal is your responsibility, and it doesn't expire at sunset. A low shot is exactly the kind that breaks a leg or takes the brisket, leaving an animal to die slowly somewhere in the willows. So walk to the spot. Mark it with something you'll find again, and look. If you honestly can't search safely in the dark, come back at first light, and come back with help rather than an excuse. Tired and cold isn't the same thing as finished.

  3. 3You come around a point in the boat and find another party already butchering an animal on the beach you'd planned to land on. What does respect for other harvesters look like right then?

    1. Land anyway, since the beach is public and they don't own it
    2. Land and offer to buy meat off them
    3. Carry on to another landing, leave them the room, and go in only if they wave you over
    4. Sit offshore with the motor running until they've finished and left
    Show the answer

    Carry on to another landing, leave them the room, and go in only if they wave you over

    Nobody owns the beach, true. That was never the question. They got there first and they're in the middle of work that needs room and concentration, so dropping in on top of them is something you can avoid at no cost to yourself. Idling offshore to watch isn't better. That's just pressure with a polite face on it. Give them the landing and find another, and if they want company, they'll signal. Country this big rarely forces two parties onto the same gravel.

  4. 4Somebody leaves gut piles, empty fuel jugs and a shredded tarp at a landing a whole community uses all season. Past the mess itself, what is the consequence Module 1 is pointing at?

    1. Not much, since high water will clean the site up
    2. A fine, and once that's paid the matter is closed
    3. Other hunters just use a different landing, so it sorts itself out
    4. Communities, landholders and managers lose trust in hunters, and that trust is what keeps access and opportunity open for all of us
    Show the answer

    Communities, landholders and managers lose trust in hunters, and that trust is what keeps access and opportunity open for all of us

    The damage from one slob spreads well past the mess itself. Everyone who saw it now has an opinion about hunters, and those people sit on councils, own the cabins, run the boards and answer the phone when access gets decided. That's the real bill. It gets paid by hunters who had nothing to do with it. The flip side is the useful part: leave a site clean, or clean up someone else's leavings, and it buys credit for everyone coming behind you. It costs ten minutes.

  5. 5Why does a hunting course spend time on being honest with yourself about what you can and can't do?

    1. Because an honest read of your shooting range, your fitness and your gear is what stops you taking on a hunt that ends badly for you or for the animal
    2. Because the course includes a physical fitness test
    3. Because hunters who overestimate themselves take fewer animals, which weakens management data
    4. Because insurers require a written self-assessment before each trip
    Show the answer

    Because an honest read of your shooting range, your fitness and your gear is what stops you taking on a hunt that ends badly for you or for the animal

    Respect for yourself sounds like the soft item on the list. When it's missing, though, it's the one that gets people hurt. You know how far you can actually shoot, as opposed to how far you'd like to. And can you pack a hindquarter three kilometres over tussocks, or will you be sitting down in the muskeg halfway? Knowing that in advance changes what you plan and what you pass up. Pretend otherwise and you put a wounded animal in the bush and a hunter in trouble, sometimes on the same afternoon.

  6. 6A first-time hunter takes a caribou and asks what to do with more meat than his household will eat. Why does Module 1 treat that as an ethics question rather than a logistics one?

    1. Because selling the surplus is the expected next step once your own freezer's full
    2. Because meat left to spoil is an animal killed for nothing, and getting it to people who can use it is part of respecting the animal
    3. Because surplus meat has to be surrendered at a government office
    4. Because a hunter who can't eat a whole caribou shouldn't have taken one
    Show the answer

    Because meat left to spoil is an animal killed for nothing, and getting it to people who can use it is part of respecting the animal

    A full freezer doesn't make the animal any less dead. The whole justification for the kill is that the meat gets used, so asking where it goes is the same as asking whether the hunt was respectful. In most northern communities the answer is old and obvious. It goes to elders, to households that can't get out on the land, to whoever needs it. Sharing isn't a nice extra bolted on at the end. It's how the animal gets honoured once the work is done.

  7. 7Module 2 makes you define an ecosystem before it lets you manage one. What does an ecosystem take in?

    1. Only the animals living in an area
    2. The living things in an area together with the non-living parts, soil, water, air and climate, and every way they act on each other
    3. Plants and soil, with animals counted separately
    4. Any area a government has drawn a management boundary around
    Show the answer

    The living things in an area together with the non-living parts, soil, water, air and climate, and every way they act on each other

    Not just wildlife, though it's easy to think so. Pull the permafrost, the lichen, the river ice or the length of the daylight out of a northern ecosystem and the animals in it change right away, so those things are part of the system, not a backdrop to it. The other half of the definition is the arrows between the pieces. A bad berry year moves bears, and that moves where you can safely leave meat. Nothing in an ecosystem sits by itself. That's exactly why managing one animal in isolation almost never works.

  8. 8A caribou herd has miles of lichen range, but a thaw followed by a hard freeze seals the whole of it under ice. Numbers drop that winter. In management terms, what is the ice doing?

    1. Raising carrying capacity, since fewer animals means more food each
    2. Nothing measurable, because caribou dig through any crust
    3. Acting as a limiting factor, cutting off food that's physically there but out of reach
    4. Proving the range was overgrazed
    Show the answer

    Acting as a limiting factor, cutting off food that's physically there but out of reach

    The food never went anywhere, which makes this the cleanest limiting factor you'll find. It's under two centimetres of ice the animals can't paw through, and for a caribou that's the same as not existing. A limiting factor is simply whichever thing runs short first. It changes by year and by season, too: deep snow one winter, insects and heat the next summer, wolves somewhere else. Find the factor that's actually binding and you've found what's worth managing. Counting the lichen won't tell you a thing.

  9. 9Muskox on an island range keep climbing in number until the willow and sedge are cropped to nothing, and then animals start dying over winter. What did that herd run into?

    1. The carrying capacity of that range, which is what the land can feed and shelter year on year without being wrecked
    2. A limiting factor introduced by predators
    3. A natural cycle that has nothing to do with food
    4. The result of too little hunting, which is the only thing that ever caps a population
    Show the answer

    The carrying capacity of that range, which is what the land can feed and shelter year on year without being wrecked

    Nobody posts carrying capacity on a sign. You only see that ceiling once a population has gone through it, and going through it does damage that lasts. Grazed-off willow doesn't grow back in a northern summer the way it would further south. So the ceiling itself drops, and the herd's crash is deeper than it needed to be. That's why managers would rather hold a population under the ceiling than let it find its own, and hunting is one of the few tools that can do that on purpose instead of by starvation.

  10. 10ECC asks successful hunters to report their harvest and sometimes to hand in a jaw, a tooth or a sample. A hunter grumbles it's paperwork for its own sake. What's he missing?

    1. The samples are only checked for contaminants and have nothing to do with populations
    2. Harvest reports are used to bill hunters for the animals they take
    3. That information is most of what managers have to work with, and harvest numbers, ages and body condition are how next season gets set
    4. Nothing, since decisions come from aerial surveys alone
    Show the answer

    That information is most of what managers have to work with, and harvest numbers, ages and body condition are how next season gets set

    Aerial surveys tell you roughly how many animals are out there on one day. They can't tell you how old those animals were, whether the cows were carrying, how much fat sat on the kidneys, or how hard hunters worked for each one. Hunters can. Nobody else has it. A jaw with the teeth in it is a birth date, and kidney fat is a report card on the summer range. When a season tightens or opens, that data is usually what did it, so your envelope of samples is a vote, not a chore.

  11. 11A community keeps getting black bears working through the dump and along the fish racks. Module 2 calls this a coexistence problem. What actually fixes it?

    1. Relocating each bear one at a time, which reliably ends the visits
    2. Setting food out at a site away from town so the bears stay there
    3. Leaving it, since bears lose interest by themselves after a season or two
    4. Taking the attractants away, because a bear that never gets a food reward in town has no reason to come back
    Show the answer

    Taking the attractants away, because a bear that never gets a food reward in town has no reason to come back

    Take away what they're coming for. A bear is a machine for finding cheap calories, and a dump or a fish rack is the cheapest for a hundred kilometres. Move the bear and the food is still there: another bear finds it inside a week, and the one you moved often walks home anyway. Feeding them somewhere else just relocates the classroom. Secure the garbage and sort out the racks and meat caches, and the reward disappears. In the north, coexistence usually means changing what people leave lying around, not changing the bears.

  12. 12Why do wildlife managers build seasons and quotas around populations rather than around individual animals?

    1. Because individual animals can't be counted
    2. Because the law forbids managing individual animals
    3. Because every animal in a herd is interchangeable in every respect
    4. Because a healthy population can absorb a regulated harvest and replace it, while the condition of any one animal tells you almost nothing about whether the herd can
    Show the answer

    Because a healthy population can absorb a regulated harvest and replace it, while the condition of any one animal tells you almost nothing about whether the herd can

    That's the mental switch the module is trying to flip. A population isn't a pile of animals. It's something that produces a surplus most years, and the surplus is what a harvest comes out of. Take it and the population fills the gap; take more and you're eating the capital. It's also why one fat bull in good shape proves nothing about a herd in trouble, and a thin one proves nothing about a herd doing fine. Management works at the scale of the whole. A strange way to think, until you've seen a herd cycle.

  13. 13A barren-ground caribou herd summers on the tundra, winters down in the taiga and crosses more than one territorial and provincial boundary doing it. What does that tell you about how it gets managed?

    1. One department manages it and the others are told afterwards
    2. Whoever's boundary the herd is standing in on a given day has the say
    3. Responsibility is shared, with federal, territorial and Indigenous governments and co-management boards all holding roles
    4. Herds that cross boundaries go unmanaged
    Show the answer

    Responsibility is shared, with federal, territorial and Indigenous governments and co-management boards all holding roles

    Shared responsibility, because the herd has never read a map. A rule that stops at a border is a rule an animal walks around, so managing a migratory herd means several governments and boards working the same file at once, each with its own responsibilities and its own area. Slower than one office deciding things? Yes. It's also the only arrangement that matches how the animals actually live. Module 2 wants you to know the structure exists and why the geography forces it, not to memorise an org chart.

  14. 14Search the Wildlife Act for the words 'hunter education' and you'll come up empty. What does section 48(1) actually call the course?

    1. An approved harvester training course
    2. A certified hunter safety program
    3. A recognized wildlife education course
    4. An approved firearms and harvesting certificate
    Show the answer

    An approved harvester training course

    The Act's term is approved harvester training course. People trip on this constantly, and it's why you'll find folks online insisting the NWT requirement isn't really law. It is. The legislation just has its own vocabulary, while ECC brands the thing you actually sit through as Hunter Education, so the two names travel together without ever meeting in a search box. Reading the Act, or quoting it? Use the statutory words.

    Source: Wildlife Act, SNWT 2013, c.30, s.48(1): Unless exempted by the regulations, a person shall not hunt or otherwise harvest wildlife until he or she has successfully completed an approved harvester training course. Checked 2026-09-22.

  15. 15ECC's own Hunter Education fact sheet puts a date on when the training requirement started applying to new hunters. What is it?

    1. November 28, 2014
    2. January 1, 2020
    3. November 1, 2021
    4. January 1, 2025
    Show the answer

    January 1, 2020

    January 1, 2020. The Wildlife Act is older than the requirement, and that's why 2014 looks tempting and is wrong: most of the Act came into force that year, but the training sections were held back and only switched on at the start of 2020. So a requirement that feels new is well into its sixth season now. It's a precondition to being issued a licence, not something checked in the field.

    Source: GNWT Environment and Climate Change, Hunter Education fact sheet: Starting January 1, 2020, new hunters will be required by law to complete Hunter Education prior to being issued a hunting licence in the NWT. Checked 2026-09-22.

  16. 16Section 48(2) of the Wildlife Act adds a second trigger for the training course on top of the one in 48(1). What sets it off?

    1. Letting a hunting licence lapse for more than five years
    2. Moving to the NWT from another province or territory
    3. Being reported to an officer by another hunter
    4. A conviction for contravening a prescribed provision of the Act or the regulations
    Show the answer

    A conviction for contravening a prescribed provision of the Act or the regulations

    A conviction under a prescribed provision. Read 48(1) alone and you'd assume the course is a one-time gate on the way in. Subsection (2) says otherwise, and it can put the course back in front of someone who's hunted for years. Which provisions count is set out in the Wildlife General Regulations rather than the Act, so the list lives one document over. The mechanism is worth knowing about. It reframes the course as something the Act can require again, rather than a certificate you file and forget.

    Source: Wildlife Act, SNWT 2013, c.30, s.48(2): Unless exempted by the regulations, a person convicted of an offence for a contravention of a prescribed provision of this Act or the regulations may not obtain a hunting licence or general hunting licence, and shall not hunt or otherwise harvest under a hunting licence or general hunting licence, until he or she has successfully completed an approved harvester training course. Checked 2026-09-22.

  17. 17Past the licensing rules, the Wildlife Act hands a sentencing court a tool that involves the training course. What can the court direct?

    1. That the person teach the course to other offenders
    2. That the person's certificate be transferred to another jurisdiction
    3. That the course fee be doubled as part of the penalty
    4. That the person complete an approved harvester training course before any future harvesting of wildlife in the Northwest Territories
    Show the answer

    That the person complete an approved harvester training course before any future harvesting of wildlife in the Northwest Territories

    Fines and forfeiture aren't the whole of sentencing in wildlife matters. Section 164 lets a court attach conditions, and one of them is sending a person back through the course before they harvest again. Small detail, big idea behind it: the course is treated as something that changes behaviour, not a formality. Notice too that the wording covers future harvesting generally, not just hunting under a particular licence.

    Source: Wildlife Act, SNWT 2013, c.30, s.164(1)(c): successfully complete an approved harvester training course before carrying out any future harvesting of wildlife in the Northwest Territories Checked 2026-09-22.

  18. 18Plenty of websites quote 80% as the NWT pass mark. What does the GNWT's own Hunter Education Teacher Resource say you need on each module quiz?

    1. 60%
    2. 70%
    3. 75%
    4. 80%
    Show the answer

    75%

    Seventy-five, and the GNWT document says it twice, once for the online course and once for the version taught in schools. The 80% quoted around the internet has no government source behind it. Most likely it was borrowed from a neighbouring jurisdiction and never checked. Two more things worth holding onto. The mark applies to each module quiz separately, not to a pooled score, and the GNWT doesn't publish how many questions a module quiz contains, so anyone who tells you the number is guessing.

    Source: GNWT Hunter Education Teacher Resource (updated November 2021), 'Accessing the Online Course': Each module ends with a quiz that participants must pass with a minimum of 75% to receive their Hunter Education Certificate. Checked 2026-09-22.

  19. 19You've passed every module and printed your completion certificate. ECC's fact sheet has one more step before you go for a licence. What is it?

    1. Mail the certificate to Yellowknife and wait for it to come back
    2. Take the certificate to your local or regional office and have staff sign it
    3. Have the certificate notarized
    4. Sit the final module quiz again, in person
    Show the answer

    Take the certificate to your local or regional office and have staff sign it

    Get it signed by staff at your local or regional office. Until someone there signs it, the printout isn't the finished article, and it won't do its job at the licence counter. It's a small step that catches people out. Everything up to that point happens on a screen, so it's easy to assume the last bit does too. Sort it out before the season, not the week it opens, when the office is busiest.

    Source: GNWT Environment and Climate Change, Hunter Education fact sheet: STEP 3: Visit your local or regional ENR office to have your completion certificate signed by staff. Checked 2026-09-22.

  20. 20A hunter used to whitetails down south glasses a group of caribou and announces that every animal in it is a bull, because they're all carrying antlers. Where's he gone wrong?

    1. Caribou cows grow antlers too, so antlers are a poor way to sex the animal
    2. At that distance those are almost certainly moose
    3. Caribou bulls drop their antlers in summer, so none of them can be bulls
    4. He's right, since cows never carry antlers in any deer species
    Show the answer

    Caribou cows grow antlers too, so antlers are a poor way to sex the animal

    Caribou cows grow antlers too. They're the one deer in North America where the females are antlered, and it catches out just about every hunter with southern habits. Sex them on other cues. Bulls are heavier through the neck and shoulder, carry a bigger mane and, in the fall, antlers that are thicker and more sweeping. Cows are finer-headed, with smaller, spindlier antlers, and they hold theirs into the winter after the bulls have dropped. Get close with the binoculars before you decide. At half a kilometre a big cow and a young bull look the same.

  21. 21Two dark, heavy-bodied animals a long way off, and you're working out whether you're looking at muskox or wood bison. Which cue settles it quickest?

    1. Colour, since bison are black and muskox are brown
    2. The horns: muskox horns drop from a boss across the forehead then hook up at the tips, while bison horns are short and curve up off the sides of the head
    3. Group size, because muskox never travel in groups
    4. Nothing visual works, so you'd have to check the tracks
    Show the answer

    The horns: muskox horns drop from a boss across the forehead then hook up at the tips, while bison horns are short and curve up off the sides of the head

    The horns, and they don't change with the season or the light. A muskox wears its horns like a helmet, joined across the top of the skull and sweeping down past the eye before turning up. A bison's come straight off the sides of the head and stay short. Often the country answers it before you get that far, though. Wood bison are a boreal animal of the country around Great Slave and the Mackenzie lowlands; muskox belong to the tundra and arctic coast. They're two of the few big animals in Canada whose ranges barely touch.

  22. 22Two white ptarmigan in the willows in March. What's the usual way to tell a willow ptarmigan from a rock ptarmigan?

    1. The tail, black on willow ptarmigan and white on rock ptarmigan
    2. Size alone, since willow ptarmigan are roughly half the weight of rock ptarmigan
    3. The bill, heavy and deep on a willow ptarmigan and small and fine on a rock, plus a black stripe through the eye on a rock ptarmigan cock in winter
    4. You can't in winter, because both are pure white with nothing to separate them
    Show the answer

    The bill, heavy and deep on a willow ptarmigan and small and fine on a rock, plus a black stripe through the eye on a rock ptarmigan cock in winter

    Both go white in winter and both keep black tails, so skip the tail and look at the head. A willow ptarmigan has a stout, deep bill built for stripping willow buds. The rock ptarmigan's is noticeably smaller and finer, and rock cocks run a black line back through the eye that a willow never shows. Size helps a little once you've handled both, but it runs opposite to the wrong answer here. Willow ptarmigan are the bigger bird. Habitat gives you another nudge, with willows in the shrub and creek bottoms and rock ptarmigan up on bare, stony ground.

  23. 23Something swims across the channel ahead of the boat at dusk, leaving a wake. Beaver or muskrat?

    1. Both carry the tail flat on the surface, so the wake is all you have and it can't be read
    2. A muskrat rides higher in the water because it's the heavier of the two
    3. Only beavers are out swimming at dusk, so it's a beaver
    4. Read the tail and the size: a beaver is big with a broad flat paddle, a muskrat is small with a thin rope of a tail held edge on
    Show the answer

    Read the tail and the size: a beaver is big with a broad flat paddle, a muskrat is small with a thin rope of a tail held edge on

    Once you've seen both, size does most of the work. A beaver is a twenty-kilo animal pushing a visible bow wave. A muskrat is closer to a kilo and slips along with barely a ripple. If the tail breaks the surface you're finished: the beaver's is that wide flat paddle, while the muskrat's is a thin rope held on edge, often sculling side to side. And the dive ends every argument. A beaver slaps the water hard enough to hear from across the channel. A muskrat just disappears.

  24. 24On open tundra with no trees, no buildings and nothing of known size anywhere in view, hunters misjudge range constantly. Which way does the error usually run, and what do you do about it?

    1. Distances look longer than they are, so hunters pass up shots that were easy
    2. Distances look shorter than they are, so a rangefinder or a paced check against a known landmark is worth more than your eye
    3. The eye is reliable on open ground, and it's in the bush that people get it wrong
    4. It doesn't matter, because a modern rifle shoots flat enough to make range irrelevant
    Show the answer

    Distances look shorter than they are, so a rangefinder or a paced check against a known landmark is worth more than your eye

    Shorter than they are. Your eye judges distance by counting the stuff in between, and on the barrens there isn't any stuff. Strip out the trees and fences and everything looks nearer, which is how a caribou at four hundred metres becomes a caribou at two hundred in a hunter's head. Clear northern air makes it worse. Haze, flat light and falling snow push the error the other way, so you can't even count on being wrong in a consistent direction. Range it. Or pace off a known distance on the ground first and use that to calibrate your eye for the day.

  25. 25A new hunter shoots right-handed, keeps both eyes open, and can't work out why the sight is never quite where he thought it was. What's worth checking first?

    1. Which eye is dominant, because a right-handed shooter with a dominant left eye keeps lining up with the wrong one
    2. Whether the barrel is bent
    3. Whether the scope is mounted backwards
    4. Whether he's using the right ammunition
    Show the answer

    Which eye is dominant, because a right-handed shooter with a dominant left eye keeps lining up with the wrong one

    Eye dominance. Most people have one eye that takes over when both are open, and it isn't always on the same side as the hand they shoot with. Cross-dominance is common, and it's quietly behind a lot of mystery misses. The test takes about five seconds. Make a small hole with both hands at arm's length, frame something distant through it with both eyes open, then close one eye at a time; whichever eye still sees the object is the dominant one. From there, it's closing the off eye, taping a patch on a shooting glass, or learning to shoot off the other shoulder.

  26. 26A hunter says he aims for the neck on caribou because it saves meat. Why does the course steer you to the chest instead?

    1. There are no vital structures in the neck at all
    2. A neck shot is specifically prohibited
    3. The chest gives you a far bigger margin for error over the heart and lungs, while a neck shot a few inches off leaves an animal alive and wounded
    4. Neck shots spoil more meat than chest shots do
    Show the answer

    The chest gives you a far bigger margin for error over the heart and lungs, while a neck shot a few inches off leaves an animal alive and wounded

    It's about target size, not whether the neck can kill. It can. Hit the spine or the big vessels and an animal drops instantly, which is exactly why the shot tempts people. Trouble is, the killing zone in a caribou's neck is narrow and buried in a lot of muscle, and the neck is the part of the animal that moves most. Miss low or forward and you've broken a windpipe or torn a gullet on an animal that can run for days. The chest carries a target the size of a dinner plate, and it stays put while the head swings. Take the one with the margin in it.

  27. 27A bull steps out at forty metres and suddenly your hands are shaking, your breathing's gone shallow and the sights are wandering everywhere but where you want them. What's happening, and what do you do?

    1. It's an adrenaline rush, so take the shot right away before it gets any worse
    2. It's an adrenaline rush, and you settle it by getting a solid rest, breathing out slowly and waiting until you're steady, even if that costs you the animal
    3. It's the beginning of hypothermia and you need a fire
    4. It's poor fitness showing, and nothing can be done about it in the moment
    Show the answer

    It's an adrenaline rush, and you settle it by getting a solid rest, breathing out slowly and waiting until you're steady, even if that costs you the animal

    Adrenaline. Buck fever isn't a character flaw; some old part of your brain has decided this is the moment and dumped the lot. Heart rate up, fine motor control gone, tunnel vision, and in bad cases people forget to work the bolt or chamber a round at all. You can't switch it off. You can outlast it. Get behind something solid, breathe out long and slow, and keep off the trigger until the sight settles. Sometimes the animal walks off while you're doing that, and that's better than a gut shot you spend the rest of the day chasing.

  28. 28You've shot at a caribou, it ran, and you've walked over to where it was standing. Before you start tracking, what is that patch of ground telling you?

    1. Nothing useful, since the only thing that matters is blood further along
    2. Whether the animal was standing still, which is all you need
    3. Hair, blood colour and any gut content at the site tell you roughly where you hit, and therefore how long to leave it before you push the track
    4. The wind direction at the moment of the shot
    Show the answer

    Hair, blood colour and any gut content at the site tell you roughly where you hit, and therefore how long to leave it before you push the track

    Where you hit, and so how long to wait. The hit site tells you more than anything else you'll find all day, and it usually gets walked straight over. Long guard hair with dark tips means high on the body. Short pale hair means low, and low is usually brisket. Bright, frothy blood is lung, and that animal is already down somewhere close. Dark blood with a smell and green matter in it is a gut hit: back out and leave that one for several hours, because pushing it turns a recoverable animal into one you never find. Read the site first. Then decide whether to follow now or make coffee.

  29. 29It's a mild September afternoon, the animal's down, and your partner wants to walk back for the boat and dress it when you return. Why is that backwards?

    1. The gut is where the heat and the bacteria are, and every hour it stays in is spoilage you can't take back
    2. The hide becomes impossible to remove once an animal has cooled
    3. The meat has to be dressed within the hour or the animal counts as wasted
    4. Ravens can't find an animal that's already been opened up
    Show the answer

    The gut is where the heat and the bacteria are, and every hour it stays in is spoilage you can't take back

    The heat and the bacteria are in the gut. A big animal is a very good insulated container, and the moment it dies it becomes a warm one full of bacteria. Leave the guts in on a plus-ten afternoon and the heat has nowhere to go, so the carcass ferments from the middle outward while the outside still feels cool to your hand. Open it up and most of that heat leaves in minutes. The boat can wait twenty minutes. The meat can't. Whether a moose hangs well or tastes sour usually gets decided in that first hour.

  30. 30You've got a moose dressed and quartered, and the quarters are stacked on a tarp while you shuttle loads down to the boat. What's the risk sitting in that pile?

    1. None, as long as the outside of the meat feels cool
    2. Heat trapped deep in the hindquarters near the bone can't get out, and the meat sours from the inside where you can't see it
    3. The quarters will freeze unevenly
    4. The tarp pulls moisture out of the meat and dries it too fast
    Show the answer

    Heat trapped deep in the hindquarters near the bone can't get out, and the meat sours from the inside where you can't see it

    Bone sour. It's the classic way to lose the prime cuts on an animal you did everything else right with. The hip of a moose is thick and the last place to give up its heat, and stacking quarters against each other traps exactly the heat you're trying to get rid of, while the outside chills down and fools you. Break up the pile. Get the quarters off the ground on brush or a rack, hang them if you can, and keep air moving on every surface. Meat bags keep the flies off without stopping the air.

  31. 31Two hunters argue over whether to leave the hide on the quarters for the trip out. What does it actually come down to?

    1. Always leave it on, because the hide protects the meat better than anything else whatever the weather
    2. Always take it off, because a hide never helps
    3. Whether you plan to tan the hide, which is the only thing that matters
    4. Whether it's freezing: the hide keeps dirt, flies and drying off the meat, but it also holds heat in, so in mild weather it comes off and in real cold it can stay
    Show the answer

    Whether it's freezing: the hide keeps dirt, flies and drying off the meat, but it also holds heat in, so in mild weather it comes off and in real cold it can stay

    The temperature. Neither hunter is wrong; they're arguing about different weather. A hide is a good coat, and that's both the whole point and the whole problem. On a mild early-season day the coat works against you, and it has to come off so the meat can cool. Once it's properly cold, that same coat keeps blowing dirt, flies and freezer burn off the surface while the cold does the cooling for you. Hot means skin it now. Cold means you've got some latitude. Ask what the temperature is before you ask what the rule is.

  32. 32You open up a caribou and the lungs are studded with firm pale cysts, or the animal looked thin and slow before you shot it. What's the sensible response?

    1. Carry on as normal, since cooking destroys anything that might be wrong with an animal
    2. Bury the whole thing on the spot and say nothing about it
    3. Feed the questionable parts to the dogs, since dogs aren't affected by anything caribou carry
    4. Wear gloves while you work, leave alone anything you're unsure of, and report what you saw to an ECC office
    Show the answer

    Wear gloves while you work, leave alone anything you're unsure of, and report what you saw to an ECC office

    Cysts in caribou lungs are usually hydatid, a tapeworm that cycles between wolves and caribou. The meat is generally fine. The lungs aren't, and the one thing you absolutely must not do is feed them to your dogs, because that completes the worm's life cycle and puts eggs in your own camp. Gloves are cheap insurance when handling any animal. Reporting matters more than people think, too. Managers only learn what's moving through a herd when hunters tell them, and you're on the land far more often than anyone with a clipboard.

  33. 33Bear meat and walrus meat both come with the same warning attached. What is it, and why doesn't a spell in the freezer take care of it?

    1. Trichinella larvae in the muscle, and the northern strains survive freezing, so the meat has to be cooked right through
    2. Rabies, which only cooking will kill
    3. Lead, which freezing concentrates
    4. Brucellosis, which passes on only through raw fat
    Show the answer

    Trichinella larvae in the muscle, and the northern strains survive freezing, so the meat has to be cooked right through

    Trichinella, a small worm that lives in muscle and gets into you when you eat it. Plenty of people still repeat the old advice that freezing pork takes care of it. Down south that's roughly true. Up here it's flatly wrong, because the arctic strain shrugs off freezing, a winter outdoors included. Heat is the only thing that reliably works, which means cooked all the way through rather than rare in the middle, whether it's bear, walrus or any other carnivore. Nothing about the animal looks wrong, so this one is a rule you follow, not something you can inspect for.

  34. 34Module 5 finishes with writing a travel plan. What makes a written travel plan useful to the person you leave it with, as opposed to a rough idea of where you're headed?

    1. It names your route, your camps, what you're travelling in, who's with you and the hour you'll be considered overdue, so a search has somewhere to start
    2. It's a legal document that gets filed with ECC
    3. It guarantees a helicopter if you miss your return
    4. It mostly matters for insurance claims afterwards
    Show the answer

    It names your route, your camps, what you're travelling in, who's with you and the hour you'll be considered overdue, so a search has somewhere to start

    Look at it from the other end. Someone phones it in, and the first question they get is where you went. 'Up the river hunting' covers about fifty thousand square kilometres. A real plan narrows that to a route, a couple of camps, a boat or a machine with a colour and a number on it, how many people, and what you're carrying. That's the difference between a search area you could cover in a day and one nobody can cover at all. Add the overdue time and write it down, because memory turns vague fast when somebody's worried.

  35. 35You've got a satellite messenger in the pack and you've told your sister roughly when you'll be back. What's the piece that's still missing?

    1. A second messenger as a backup
    2. A written list of the gear you're carrying
    3. Her permission to be out on the water
    4. An agreed check-in schedule and a hard time at which she calls for help, so silence actually means something
    Show the answer

    An agreed check-in schedule and a hard time at which she calls for help, so silence actually means something

    A check-in schedule with a hard trigger. A device that can call for help only works if you're conscious and holding it, and the schedule covers the case where you aren't. Agree on it in advance, in numbers: a message every evening by nine, and if two go by with nothing, she calls. Without that, a missed message just means dead batteries or a busy day, and nobody does anything for two more days. 'Roughly when I'll be back' has no trigger in it. Pick the hour, and tell her exactly who to call when it passes.

  36. 36Before a two-week trip you go over the axe as carefully as anything else in the pile. What are you actually checking?

    1. That the handle's varnished, since a bare handle isn't safe
    2. Only that the edge is sharp, because nothing else on an axe changes
    3. A tight head with no play on the handle, no cracks in the wood at the eye, and an edge that's sharp rather than rolled over
    4. That the head weighs about the same as the handle
    Show the answer

    A tight head with no play on the handle, no cracks in the wood at the eye, and an edge that's sharp rather than rolled over

    The head, mostly. An axe fails at the eye, not the edge, and it fails at the worst possible moment. Over a summer in a warm shed the wood dries out and shrinks, the head goes loose, and a loose head comes off mid-swing. So grab the handle and try to twist the head; any movement at all and it gets wedged and soaked before it goes anywhere. While you're there, check for cracks where the wood enters the eye. The edge comes last. It should shave a curl off a stick rather than bounce off it, because a dull axe glances, and a glancing axe finds your shin.

  37. 37Most of the travelling on an NWT hunt happens on the water or on a machine, not on foot. For the boat leg, which piece of gear earns its keep more than anything else?

    1. A spare propeller
    2. A bigger fuel tank
    3. A handheld GPS
    4. A flotation suit, or a PFD you're actually wearing, because cold water takes away your ability to help yourself inside a minute or two
    Show the answer

    A flotation suit, or a PFD you're actually wearing, because cold water takes away your ability to help yourself inside a minute or two

    Carry the spare prop and the GPS, sure. Neither one helps you in the ninety seconds that actually decide things. Northern water is cold enough year-round that the moment you go in, you're gasping and your grip is going, and a vest stuffed under the bow seat might as well be back at the cabin. Worn, it holds your head up while you get your breathing back. There's a reason people who spend their whole lives on that water wear a float suit in the fall and don't think of it as safety gear. To them it's just clothing.

  38. 38You're loading a freighter canoe for three days out. How should the load and your essentials be arranged?

    1. Weight low and spread fore and aft instead of piled up, everything that must stay dry in sealed bags, and fire, knife and signalling gear on your body rather than in the load
    2. Everything as far forward as it'll go, to keep the bow down
    3. Heavy items on top where they're easy to get at
    4. All the gear in one pile under a tarp so nothing gets left behind
    Show the answer

    Weight low and spread fore and aft instead of piled up, everything that must stay dry in sealed bags, and fire, knife and signalling gear on your body rather than in the load

    Two separate jobs. The first is keeping the boat stable, which means heavy things low and spread out, because a high load turns a boat tippy in exactly the chop where you wanted it stable. The second is the one nobody plans for. The boat swamps, the load goes, and you reach shore with only what was attached to you. That's why a lighter, a knife and something that makes noise or light live in a jacket pocket, not a pack. Everything else goes in dry bags, and the dry bags get tied in.

  39. 39You're planning a trip into country you've never travelled. Past maps and a forecast, what is the most reliable information available to you?

    1. Satellite imagery, which shows current conditions
    2. People who travel that country: local harvesters and elders, and the regional ECC office, who know where the ice goes bad and where the water gets too low to run
    3. Online forums, which are the most current source going
    4. The manufacturer's guidance for your boat
    Show the answer

    People who travel that country: local harvesters and elders, and the regional ECC office, who know where the ice goes bad and where the water gets too low to run

    A map shows you where the river is. It won't show the gravel bar that's been building for three years, the current that keeps the ice thin at the narrows every single winter, or which channel dries up by late August. That knowledge exists. It's just held by people instead of printed. Ask at the regional office and around the community, and ask in a way that admits you don't know the country. Satellite pictures are usually months old, and a forum will confidently tell you about a river a thousand kilometres away.

  40. 40You work out that a run up the river and back will take most of a full tank. Why does an experienced traveller treat that number as a problem rather than a plan?

    1. Because fuel burn is fixed, so the calculation can't be wrong
    2. Because gas is cheaper bought in bulk
    3. Because wind, current, a heavier boat coming home and any detour all burn more than the plan assumed, and running dry on the water is a survival situation rather than an inconvenience
    4. Because carrying spare fuel in a small boat isn't allowed
    Show the answer

    Because wind, current, a heavier boat coming home and any detour all burn more than the plan assumed, and running dry on the water is a survival situation rather than an inconvenience

    Every assumption in that calculation is optimistic. You did it on a calm day, with an empty boat and no current fighting you. The trip home has a moose in it, a headwind, and probably a side channel you wanted to look at. A third out, a third back, a third in reserve: that's the old rule, and it exists because people kept finding out the hard way. Out of fuel in the middle of a big river isn't a phone call. It's a night out if you're lucky and a long drift if you're not.

  41. 41Crossing a lake by machine in February you hit a stretch where the snow's gone grey and water is filling your track behind you. What have you run into, and why does it matter?

    1. Overflow, water pushed up on top of the ice under the snow, and it soaks your gear and freezes your machine in rather than dropping you through
    2. Open water, and the only answer is to turn hard
    3. A sign the ice underneath is thick enough for anything
    4. Melt from below, meaning spring has started
    Show the answer

    Overflow, water pushed up on top of the ice under the snow, and it soaks your gear and freezes your machine in rather than dropping you through

    Overflow. It catches southerners completely off guard, because it looks like the ice is failing and it usually isn't. Snow load pushes the ice down, and water comes up through cracks to sit between ice and snow, insulated and unfrozen. Ride into it and slush packs into the track and skis, then sets like concrete the moment you stop. Now you're chipping a machine free at minus thirty in wet boots, which is how a nuisance becomes a real problem. Keep moving to firmer snow, don't stop in it, and dry anything wet before dark. Heavy overflow also hints that the ice is thinner than you assumed, so respect it on both counts.

  42. 42You leave a quartered moose on the bank overnight and come back at first light for the last load. What should you assume, and how does that change the way you walk in?

    1. That nothing will have touched it in a single night
    2. That ravens are the only thing worth worrying about
    3. That a bear may have found it and now treats it as his, so you come in from a distance, in the open, making noise, with the wind carrying your scent ahead of you
    4. That you should approach as quietly as possible so as not to startle anything
    Show the answer

    That a bear may have found it and now treats it as his, so you come in from a distance, in the open, making noise, with the wind carrying your scent ahead of you

    Assume a bear found it. A pile of meat on a riverbank is the loudest advertisement in the country, and a bear will smell it from a long way off. Once he's claimed it, he isn't curious about you. He's defending food, the worst mood to walk in on. So do the opposite of hunting: come in wide and slow, stay in the open where you can see and be seen, talk loudly, and let the wind push your scent toward the cache so whatever's there knows you're coming long before you arrive. Glass it from a distance first. If the pile has been moved or covered with brush, leave it and come back with people.

  43. 43A boat swamps in a cold channel and you're in the water in full clothing. What actually happens to you, and in what order?

    1. Hypothermia sets in within a minute or two and is the immediate killer
    2. Roughly a minute of uncontrolled gasping, then something like ten minutes of useful movement before your hands and arms quit, and only after that does hypothermia become the problem
    3. Not much for the first half hour, provided you keep swimming hard
    4. Your clothing drags you straight under, so stripping it off is the first move
    Show the answer

    Roughly a minute of uncontrolled gasping, then something like ten minutes of useful movement before your hands and arms quit, and only after that does hypothermia become the problem

    Almost everyone gets the order wrong and assumes cold water kills by hypothermia. It usually kills long before that. The first minute is cold shock, an involuntary gasp, and if your head is under when it comes you drown right there, which is the entire argument for wearing the vest instead of reaching for it. Survive that, and you've got roughly ten minutes of meaningful movement before the cold shuts your hands and arms down. Spend them on what matters most: getting out, or getting onto the hull. Hypothermia takes an hour or more. It's the last problem on the list. And keep your clothes on, since they trap water and slow the heat loss.

  44. 44A southern hunter brings the compass he's used for twenty years and expects it to behave the same way out on the barrens. What does he need to know?

    1. Nothing changes, since a compass works the same everywhere
    2. Compasses don't work at all north of 60
    3. Declination in the NWT is large and varies across the territory, and close to the magnetic pole the needle gets sluggish and unreliable, so bearings need correcting and cross-checking against the land
    4. A compass points to true north in the NWT, so no correction is needed
    Show the answer

    Declination in the NWT is large and varies across the territory, and close to the magnetic pole the needle gets sluggish and unreliable, so bearings need correcting and cross-checking against the land

    Both extremes in the wrong answers are wrong, and they're the two things people say. The compass works. It just doesn't work the way it does in Ontario. Declination is big here, it changes as you move across the territory, and it drifts over the years, so a bearing off the map has to be corrected, and the correction depends on where you're standing. Nearer the pole the horizontal pull that swings the needle weakens, and the needle settles slowly and sulks. Treat the compass as one input, not gospel. Back it up with the sun, the land and a GPS you keep warm.

  45. 45Whiteout on open tundra, no sun, no landmark, and a compass you don't entirely trust. What traditional technique can still hold a line for you?

    1. Following your own outbound track, which never drifts in
    2. Walking toward the brightest part of the sky, which is always south
    3. Counting paces, which corrects for direction as well as distance
    4. Reading the hard wind-carved drifts underfoot, which line up with the prevailing wind and give you a consistent angle to steer against
    Show the answer

    Reading the hard wind-carved drifts underfoot, which line up with the prevailing wind and give you a consistent angle to steer against

    The wind-carved drifts underfoot. Over a season, wind on open ground is stubborn about direction, and it carves the snow into hard ridges that all run the same way. Travellers have steered by them for a very long time, going by the angle their feet cross the ridges rather than anything they can see, and it'll hold a surprisingly straight line in visibility of ten metres. It isn't free. You need to know which way the ridges ran before the weather closed in, and a shifted wind will quietly lie to you. Check it against something else whenever the world reappears. In a real whiteout, the better answer is often to stop moving at all.

  46. 46You realise you're turned around, you're tired, the light is going, and there's a travel plan sitting on your sister's fridge. What does that last fact change?

    1. Nothing, so keep moving until something looks familiar
    2. It means someone will start looking in the right piece of country at a known hour, so the smart move is to stop, get shelter and a fire going, and make yourself easy to find
    3. It means you can take more risk on the way out, since help is coming
    4. It means you should travel at night, when a fire shows up better
    Show the answer

    It means someone will start looking in the right piece of country at a known hour, so the smart move is to stop, get shelter and a fire going, and make yourself easy to find

    Here's where the planning module and the survival module shake hands. A lost person with no plan filed has to walk out, because nobody is coming. Once the route and overdue time are written down on a fridge door, the problem is completely different: stay put, stay warm, stay visible, and let the system you set up do its work. Tired people walking in bad light make things worse, and they move away from the area being searched. Stop while you've still got the energy to build something and light something. Then make noise and smoke in the morning.

  47. 47You butcher a caribou out on a frozen lake. What does the NWT course say to do with the remains?

    1. Move them onto land rather than leaving them on the ice or in the water
    2. Leave them on the ice, where they will sink out of sight in spring
    3. Cut a hole and push them down into the lake
    4. Burn them on the ice with fuel from the machine
    Show the answer

    Move them onto land rather than leaving them on the ice or in the water

    Onto land. Remains left on the ice end up in the water once it melts, fouling it for fish and for anybody who draws water there. The course asks hunters to put the remains of land animals on land, and to keep kill sites away from trails and camps too. That's respect for the environment, in practice.

    Source: NWT Hunter Education Student Manual (GNWT), Module 1, The Responsible Hunter: Place the remains of land animals on land, not in water or on ice. Checked 2026-09-30.

  48. 48A wounded ptarmigan is flapping in the snow and your partner reaches for a stick to finish it. What does the NWT course say about that?

    1. A stick is the respectful way, because it saves ammunition
    2. Hitting an animal with a stick is seen as disrespectful in the North, so finish it quickly another humane way
    3. It does not matter how a wounded bird is finished
    4. Leave it, since a wounded bird will soon die on its own
    Show the answer

    Hitting an animal with a stick is seen as disrespectful in the North, so finish it quickly another humane way

    Not with a stick. In the North, striking an animal with one is considered disrespectful, the course notes, and some people believe it will stop animals from returning. What it asks for instead is a quick, humane kill and respect for wounded animals. Finish the bird fast, some other humane way.

    Source: NWT Hunter Education Student Manual (GNWT), Module 1, The Responsible Hunter: In the north, this is considered disrespectful. Checked 2026-09-30.

  49. 49A drilling camp opens in good caribou range. The land around it is untouched, yet caribou start avoiding the area. What is going on?

    1. The camp has used up all the lichen in the area
    2. Caribou always leave an area after one season anyway
    3. Noise and activity can make animals stop using an area even when the habitat is still there
    4. The camp has changed the weather in the area
    Show the answer

    Noise and activity can make animals stop using an area even when the habitat is still there

    Disturbance. Clearing land isn't the only way habitat gets lost. Noise and human activity can drive animals out of places that still hold all the food and shelter they need, and that's what the caribou are doing here. It's one reason managers look past the footprint of a new development.

    Source: NWT Hunter Education Student Manual (GNWT), Module 2, Ecology and Wildlife Management: Sometimes human activity can cause wildlife to stop using an area even though it contains suitable habitat. Checked 2026-09-30.

  50. 50Which government manages ducks and geese in the NWT?

    1. The federal government, through the Canadian Wildlife Service under the Migratory Birds Convention Act
    2. The GNWT on its own, under the territorial Wildlife Act
    3. Each community's hunters and trappers committee on its own
    4. Fisheries and Oceans Canada, under the Fisheries Act
    Show the answer

    The federal government, through the Canadian Wildlife Service under the Migratory Birds Convention Act

    Ottawa. Ducks and geese fly across borders, so a treaty signed by Canada, the United States and Mexico shares the work of managing them, and on the Canadian side a federal agency, the Canadian Wildlife Service, runs it. Hence a permit from Ottawa instead of the territory. Whales and seals are a federal job too.

    Source: NWT Hunter Education Student Manual (GNWT), Module 2, Ecology and Wildlife Management: Migratory birds, such as ducks and geese, are managed under the Migratory Birds Conventions Act. Checked 2026-09-30.

  51. 51The NWT Wildlife General Regulations set a waiting period after a drone has been used to find game. How long is it?

    1. 1 hour after the drone has landed
    2. 12 hours after locating the game, or after the drone collected the information
    3. 24 hours after the drone has landed
    4. 48 hours after the game was first seen
    Show the answer

    12 hours after locating the game, or after the drone collected the information

    Twelve hours. Section 8.1 bars hunting game or migratory game birds within 12 hours after locating them with a drone, and the same wait applies to using information a drone collected. Finding game with a drone and passing that on to help another hunter? Also barred. Neighbouring jurisdictions set different waiting periods, so check the rules wherever you hunt.

    Source: Wildlife General Regulations, R-115-2014 (NWT), s.8.1(2): No person shall hunt game or migratory game birds (a) within 12 hours after locating the game or birds by using a drone Checked 2026-09-30.

  52. 52Driving a highway near Yellowknife, you hit and kill a moose with your truck. Under the NWT Wildlife General Regulations, how soon must you report it to an officer?

    1. Within 72 hours
    2. Within 7 days
    3. Only if you plan to keep the meat
    4. Within 24 hours
    Show the answer

    Within 24 hours

    24 hours. The duty itself sits in section 58 of the Wildlife Act, which requires a driver who accidentally kills or seriously wounds big game on a highway to report it; the regulations put the deadline at 24 hours after the incident. The report covers who was involved, what happened, when and where, and the species. Officers use them to track wildlife deaths and deal with injured animals.

    Source: Wildlife General Regulations, R-115-2014 (NWT), s.8(1): A report of an accidental kill or serious wounding of big game or wildlife under section 58 of the Act must be made within 24 hours after the incident. Checked 2026-09-30.

  53. 53Two muskoxen graze on a tundra slope. How can you tell the bull from the cow?

    1. The bull has no horns, and only the cow carries them
    2. The cow has a longer skirt of hair that reaches the ground
    3. The bull's horn bases join in a heavy boss across the forehead, while a cow's are smaller with hair between them
    4. The bull is always the one standing guard at the front of the group
    Show the answer

    The bull's horn bases join in a heavy boss across the forehead, while a cow's are smaller with hair between them

    Bulls and cows both grow horns, so look at where the horns meet. On a mature bull the bases are thick and join in a solid boss across the top of the head. A cow's horns are thinner. There's a strip of hair running between their bases. Young bulls can look cow-like, though, so study the head through good optics.

  54. 54Since caribou cows grow antlers too, how can you tell the sex of a caribou in the fall?

    1. Cows are always a darker brown than the bulls in a group
    2. Look for a bull's pale neck mane, then check for a penis sheath or a vulva patch
    3. Only bulls walk at the front of a moving group
    4. Cows carry antlers only until late summer, then drop them
    Show the answer

    Look for a bull's pale neck mane, then check for a penis sheath or a vulva patch

    Not by antlers; most cows grow them. In the fall, a mature bull stands out with a thick, pale neck mane and heavy antlers. Still, the surest check is the body itself. Bulls have a penis sheath on the belly, and a cow shows a vulva patch below the tail. Young bulls can pass for cows, so take your time.

  55. 55You shoot what you believe is a bull caribou and find, as you walk up, that it is a cow. What does the NWT course tell you to do?

    1. Report it to the nearest wildlife office as soon as you can, and do not abandon the animal
    2. Leave it where it fell and say nothing about it
    3. Take only the backstraps and leave the rest
    4. Tag it as a bull and carry on hunting
    Show the answer

    Report it to the nearest wildlife office as soon as you can, and do not abandon the animal

    Mistakes happen. How you handle one is what counts. The course says to report a wrong kill to the nearest office as soon as practical and not to abandon it. (The manual calls the department ENR; it's now Environment and Climate Change.) Look after the meat the same as with any animal you take.

    Source: NWT Hunter Education Student Manual (GNWT), Module 4, Hunting Skills: Report it to the nearest ENR office as soon as practical. Do not abandon your kill. Checked 2026-09-30.

  56. 56A group of caribou crosses a ridge and one calf-sized animal trails far behind the rest. Before you settle on it, what should you consider?

    1. Nothing, since stragglers are always sick animals
    2. Only that it is within range of your rifle
    3. That calves carry no antlers, so it must be a cow
    4. Hunters may be limited to certain sexes or ages, so confirm the animal's age and sex before shooting
    Show the answer

    Hunters may be limited to certain sexes or ages, so confirm the animal's age and sex before shooting

    Its age and sex. Hunters are sometimes restricted to males or to adult animals, the course notes, so species alone won't do. That straggler might be a calf, a yearling or an older animal. Get the binoculars on it and look closely before you decide.

    Source: NWT Hunter Education Student Manual (GNWT), Module 4, Hunting Skills: Sometimes hunters are restricted to hunting only males of a species or only adult animals. Checked 2026-09-30.

  57. 57You are planning a late-winter trip above the treeline. Which kind of stove does the NWT course point you toward?

    1. A butane canister stove, because it is the lightest to carry
    2. A propane stove, because it lights at once in any cold
    3. One that burns naphtha (white gas) or kerosene, since butane and propane are unreliable in winter
    4. No stove, because willow for a fire is found everywhere
    Show the answer

    One that burns naphtha (white gas) or kerosene, since butane and propane are unreliable in winter

    Naphtha or kerosene. In deep cold, butane and propane lose pressure and can quit just when you need heat, while the other two keep working. Wood can be scarce above the treeline, so carry plenty of fuel and more than one way to light it. Matches and lighters go in a waterproof container.

    Source: NWT Hunter Education Student Manual (GNWT), Module 7, Survival Skills: Stoves using butane or propane are not reliable in the winter. Checked 2026-09-30.

  58. 58You dig a snow cave for the night and light a candle inside. Why must you keep a vent open even though it lets cold air in?

    1. The vent keeps the roof from melting and caving in
    2. The vent lets searchers hear you from outside
    3. The vent lets the snow walls dry out overnight
    4. Carbon dioxide from breathing and carbon monoxide from the candle can build up to deadly levels
    Show the answer

    Carbon dioxide from breathing and carbon monoxide from the candle can build up to deadly levels

    Packed snow insulates well, and for the same reason fresh air barely moves through it. Seal yourself in and the gases from your breathing, plus whatever a candle or stove gives off, can build to dangerous levels. Poke a small hole through the roof. Leave the entrance partly open too. If the flame dims or goes out, let more air in right away.

    Source: NWT Hunter Education Student Manual (GNWT), Module 7, Survival Skills: Always leave a ventilation hole at the entrance of a snow shelter to allow a change of air. Checked 2026-09-30.

  59. 59You are stranded in winter with no stove and you are thirsty. Why does the NWT course warn against eating snow?

    1. Melting it inside you costs body heat and leaves you more dehydrated
    2. Snow always carries parasites that make you sick
    3. It fills your stomach so you cannot eat food
    4. At very low temperatures snow holds no water
    Show the answer

    Melting it inside you costs body heat and leaves you more dehydrated

    It costs heat. Your body has to spend warmth turning snow into water, and in the cold that's warmth you can hardly spare; the course says it only adds to dehydration. Melt snow over a fire or stove before you drink it. And keep drinking, even when you don't feel thirsty.

    Source: NWT Hunter Education Student Manual (GNWT), Module 7, Survival Skills: You must have water to survive, but do not eat snow. Checked 2026-09-30.

  60. 60You need to rig an emergency shelter from a tarp and some rope. Why does the NWT course favour a canvas tarp over a plastic one?

    1. Canvas is lighter to carry than any plastic tarp
    2. Canvas lets moist air escape, while plastic traps it and leaves you damp
    3. Plastic tarps melt in cold weather
    4. Canvas blocks the wind, and plastic does not
    Show the answer

    Canvas lets moist air escape, while plastic traps it and leaves you damp

    Moisture from your breath and body builds up under any shelter. Plastic holds it in. Slowly you get damp, and wet clothing loses heat much faster than dry. Canvas lets that moist air out while still shedding rain, and staying dry is one of the main ways to stay warm.

    Source: NWT Hunter Education Student Manual (GNWT), Module 7, Survival Skills: A waterproof canvas tarp is better than one made of plastic since canvas allows moist air to escape. Checked 2026-09-30.

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Drill with flashcards

These are practice questions, not the official exam. We wrote them from the published course topics. We did not copy them from the Northwest Territories Hunter Education question bank. So a good score here means you are ready to book the real thing. It does not mean you are certified.

Ready for the paperwork? Our guide to getting a hunting licence in Northwest Territories covers the steps after the course.

What the NWT Hunter Education module quizzes cover

The Northwest Territories Hunter Education is organised into 7 modules. This practice set follows the same outline, so you can drill any of them with the topic buttons above the questions.

  1. The Responsible Hunter
  2. Ecology and Wildlife Management
  3. NWT Hunting Laws, Acts and Regulations
  4. Hunting Skills
  5. Planning and Preparation
  6. The Hunt
  7. Survival Skills

Questions about the NWT Hunter Education module quizzes

Is this the real Northwest Territories Hunter Education exam?

No. These are original practice questions written from published curriculum topics. They are not reproduced from the official question bank, and passing them does not certify you to hunt in Northwest Territories.

What does the NWT Hunter Education module quizzes cover?

There are 7 topics here: ethics, wildlife management, regulations, wildlife identification, field techniques, planning preparation, survival. The official course covers the same ground in more depth.

Does a Northwest Territories hunting licence work in other provinces?

No. Hunting licences are issued province by province, so a Northwest Territories licence only covers Northwest Territories. The hunter education credential is a separate question, and each province decides for itself which outside credentials it accepts. We set out what each one publishes in our guide to whether hunter education transfers between provinces.