Does management of woodland caribou threats provide protection for Canada’s other species at risk?

In Canada, the number of species at risk is escalating rapidly, prompting conservation managers to consider how best to allocate funding to effectively address species loss and support ecological integrity. Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) have declined extensively across Cananda and are central to the nation’s conservation strategy. We use national datasets of spatial distributions and threat listings to examine the extent that woodland caribou-focused conservation might benefit Canadian species at risk, quantified through geographic and threat overlap. Threat overlap is defined here as the extent two species share International Union for Conservation of Nature Threat Classification Scheme subcategories (45 total) published in national conservation documentation, measured using the Jaccard index. We found that 20% of species at risk overlap in range with woodland caribou, and of those 12% overlap in more than 20% of their range. The variables that best predicted an index of shared threats between woodland caribou and sympatric species at risk, were range size and taxonomic group. Woodland caribou were found to share more threats with species at risk that have large ranges, and those from specific taxonomic groups including amphibians and terrestrial molluscs. Management focus on woodland caribou though important in its own right, provides uneven protection for Canada’s species at risk, even those that are sympatric.