Cariboo's caribou threatened

The Cariboo, like precious few other areas of BC and Alberta, has a dwindling population of an animal with an ancient ancestry.

Many people already know the mountain caribou is in danger of extinction; what they may not know yet is, the lineage of this animal seems to be a more distinct breed that scientists previously believed.

According to a University of Calgary study published in late January in the Molecular Ecology journal, British Columbia and Alberta’s mountain caribou populations are actually the result of a blending between the two major subspecies of caribou that likely occurred about 10,000 years ago, during the end of the last ice age.

“These are special animals because they are not woodland caribou or tundra caribou, but a very interesting combination of the two,” said U of C’s Byron Weckworth, who headed up the study. “Mountain caribou are an important part of the genetic diversity of the entire species and maintaining that diversity will be critical as caribou face the impacts of continued human development and climate change into the future.”

Using DNA analysis and results from 10 years of tracking the migratory patterns of the mountain caribou populations in both provinces, they revealed mountain caribou are hybrids of migratory tundra caribou and sedentary woodland caribou.

A Forest Practices Board (FPB) special report from five years ago referenced a 2002 census that showed a decline in mountain caribou population from 2,300 in 1996 to 1,900 in 2002, in 13 isolated groups from the Kootenays north to Prince George, and that most of the populations continue to shrink, with none expanding.

The 2004 FPB report stated a critical factor to the survival of mountain caribou is that their food must be available within a suitable habitat. It predicted a continued decline in the population of mountain caribou, and indicated if current demographics continue, the most southerly BC populations will likely disappear within 20 years regardless of conservation efforts. They forecasted that the animals will probably vanish over most of their distribution within the next 100 years, and said scientific evidence shows there appears little time left to act before the final opportunity to restore mountain caribou populations in the province will be lost.

After many environmental organizations subsequently urged people in 2007 to write BC’s Agriculture and Lands minister, Pat Bell, about the plight of the mountain caribou, thousands of letters and postcards were sent to the minister in support of the initiative. In October 2007, Bell announced his plan to restore the mountain caribou population to 2,500 animals throughout their existing range in BC, along with a promise to provide $1 million per year for three years. The funding is intended to support the management, implementation and monitoring of the plan to determine possible modifications to their earlier strategy.

Although the David Suzuki Foundation said the plan is a major accomplishment, they were not overly ecstatic, citing that a quarter of the planet’s remaining mountain caribou have been lost in the past decade due to degradation of their old-growth habitat and the BC plan still does not deal with timely habitat protection.

The October 2008 update of the Mountain Caribou Recovery Implementation Plan, produced by the Ministry of Environment’s Species (MOE) at Risk Coordin-ation Office (SaRCO), states that MOE invested $700,000 in the first phase activities during 2008. The outcome includes, among other things, plans for predator monitoring, moose surveys and Caribou surveys.

The SaRCO plan update states that 77,000 hectacres of incremental habitat (land outside areas protected through other planning processes) is identified to protect the land in a way that avoids undue impacts to resource-based industries, with maps finalized for their planning units.

Draft legal orders for protecting habitat from timber harvesting and road building were completed in June 2008 and the SaRCO document indicates plans for managing snowmobiling, heli-skiing and augementation (capturing and breeding the animals), although the breeding plan has been put on hold.

The second phase involves the development of a multi-year predator-prey strategy, and they say a range-wide mountain caribou census is planned for March 2009.