Blog: New Collaborative Research in the Race to Save Woodland Caribou

Authors
Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute
Resource Date:
2019

Woodland caribou populations in Alberta and BC are declining, and many will be lost without fast management action. To stem the decline in local population loss, intensively applying a cocktail of management actions is more effective than applying actions weakly or alone.

The study team comprised researchers from the Alberta and BC governments, the Universities of Alberta and Montana, and independent consultancies, plus assistance from local First Nations. The team took advantage of management trials that were already taking place in 18 caribou populations across a more-than-90,000-square-kilometer region of Alberta and BC. These actions included predator reduction, prey (i.e., other large herbivores) reduction, translocation of caribou, and temporary protection of newborn caribou calves. How does each of these trials impact caribou population growth rates?

Overall, the study showed that population management actions have a positive effect on caribou populations, and that combinations of actions have a greater effect than single actions alone. Predator reduction benefited Woodland Caribou the most—perhaps to be expected given the immediate nature of predation itself—but prey reduction and maternal penning also showed positive results. Translocation was ineffective, but might work when combined with other actions. Regardless of which management action was chosen, caribou population growth didn’t improve if the action was only weakly applied.