Document Actions
Mountain Caribou
Mountain caribou are a variety of woodland caribou living in old-growth forests in British Columbia. One herd extends down over the border into the US only in the Selkirk Mountains of northeastern Washington and northwestern Idaho.
Need old-growth, wet forests for food and cover
Mountain caribou live in Inland Temperate Rainforest and we have some here in the US where the rainforest extends down into the mountains of northeastern Washington and northwestern Idaho. Animals in the South Selkirks herd, protected in the US as an endangered species, are few and vulnerable in number. As part of the Mountain Caribou Project,
Conservation Northwest works closely with conservation groups in Canada to protect mountain caribou and the unique forested habitat it relies upon.
Recent protection from snowmobiles in the Selkirks and recovery plan agreement by the Canadian government for herds north of the border promise some hope for a future for these animals.
Mountain caribou in BC and the US differ uniquely from their cousins (barren-ground caribou) in Alaska and northern Europe:
- While barren-ground caribou migrate long distances seasonally, mountain caribou live within the same mountain forests, traveling higher and lower in elevation with the seasons to find food and to escape predators.
- In winter, mountain caribou depend absolutely upon arboreal lichens as their main source of food; barren-ground caribou eat ground lichens for sustenance.
- Dinner plate-sized hooves give mountain caribou an advantage on deep snowpacks, letting them browse tree lichens growing on low branches of old-growth trees. Arboreal lichens thrive in the moist, internal air within the forest canopies of these wet-belt rainforests.
- In the past, big tracts of ancient forest have allowed mountain caribou to remain separated from deer and elk, protecting them from predators such as wolves that normally stalk these other ungulates.