Boreal Caribou Health Monitoring Guidance Repository

This webpage centralizes the best available information related to Boreal Caribou Health Monitoring. Note: some resources shared in the list below focus on caribou designatable units other than boreal caribou. We choose to include them in this repository as case studies; these might provide a source of inspiration and lessons learned. 

Opinions and suggested future directions from members

This webpage is managed jointly by the National Boreal Caribou Knowledge 
Consortium's Monitoring Working Group (MWG) and Caribou Health Knowledge Network (CHKN). MWG or CHKN members have shared the following perspectives. Members who shared these insights asked to remain anonymous.

Why is it important to monitor an individual’ caribou's health?

• "Early warning signs. For example, matted fur or hair loss could mean the caribou has ticks."
• "Monitoring of a few individuals may give clues about the rest of the herd."

Why is it important to monitor a population’s health, as compared to an individual’s health?

• "Caribou health is intimately linked to human and environmental health."
• "If every jurisdiction were to collect baseline caribou health data, in the absence of having 30 years to get reliable datasets, we could use space for time comparisons/ assessments to infer trends from one population to another."

What is the value of including wildlife health monitoring in existing monitoring programs? 

• "We gain a better understanding of the overall system (trophic cascades, reproductive health, etc.)"
• "Information on the health of the individual can (if done properly) be used to infer the health of the herd."

Who should be involved in monitoring caribou health? Are there restrictions on who can collect biological samples?

• “Observations of fur condition and animal behaviour might be collected by anyone, but collection of certain kinds of samples do need to be collected by trained personnel.” 
• "It is always helpful to collect samples, but it’s better if the samples are collected in a proper/standardized manner.”
• "Note that there is a difference between mortality investigations vs healthy harvest-based sampling vs live animal sampling."

At what scale do we collect information related to health? Is health monitoring usually done opportunistically?  

• "Great question and not an easy answer. Ideally, there would be implications at the population-level, but this often depends on having years of consistent data from individual animals, including sample collection and analysis with a comparison of "healthy" animals to "unhealthy" animals and an understanding of causes of morbidity and mortality."

If you could share one message about monitoring caribou health, what would that be?

1. Collaboration is critical "We need to break out of the ‘silo’ approach to health monitoring: the current approach is to have wildlife health monitoring as its own program, but we should be pushing for wildlife health monitoring to be part of a ‘regular’ monitoring program."
2. Long-term datasets are invaluable "We need to move away from small, isolated 1-2 year funding projects. To interpret data with the most confidence, it is much better to have long-term datasets, ideally spanning 30 + years. That said, one workaround to this challenge is that if all the areas sample their caribou, and then when we get a spatially rich dataset, we can quickly compare one population to another with more of a background understanding."
3. Guidance is desired "From an environmental impact assessment perspective, we tend to monitor individual caribou. It would be nice to know what the options are, in terms of the health monitoring methods, that we can add to our existing baseline data programs."
4. There is no one 'catch-all' method "In our area, one of the things that's important to us, is to be clear in terms of what is the minimum for baseline data, and then provide choices to [our practitioners] on what to sample, based on the additional questions they are hoping to answer."
5. Interpretation should be done with care "We need to make it clear that collecting comprehensive health metrics (samples/evidence/data) is relatively quick, but that the interpretation should be done with care, as misinterpretation and/or inappropriate extrapolation of results is possible"
6. Call on your local experts for help "Readers should call on their local wildlife health experts to help, [especially] before inferring information."

CaSE STUDIES: Canadian Resources and projects

• National or Multi-region

  •  A Scoping Review of the Rangifer tarandus Infectious Disease Literature: Gap between Information and Application

  • Large-scale Prion Protein Genotyping in Canadian Caribou Populations and Potential Impact on Chronic Wasting Disease Susceptibility

  • Storymap: Finding Lichen For Caribou

  • Video: The Potential Importance of Nutrition in Habitat Conservation Programs for Caribou

  • Webinar: Caribou Conservation and One Health in Canada

  • Project: Caribou Genomics: A National Non-invasive Monitoring Approach for an Iconic and Model Species at Risk Project Contact: Paul J. Wilson (Trent University)

  • Project: The Boreal Caribou Ecological Model Contact: Tatyana Bond (Habitat Restoration Working Group of the National Boreal Caribou Knowledge Consortium)

  • Community of Practice: Caribou Health Knowledge Network of the National Boreal Caribou Knowledge Consortium (Contact: NBCKC Secretariat)

• Canadian Arctic *Note: Canadian Arctic initiatives tend to focus on peary and barren ground caribou. We choose to include them in this boreal caribou list as case studies; these might provide a source of inspiration and lessons learned. 

  • Defining Parasite Biodiversity at High Latitudes of North America: New Host and Geographic Records for Onchocerca Cervipedis (Nematoda: Onchocercidae) in Moose and Caribou
  • Widespread Exposure to Mosquitoborne California Serogroup Viruses in Caribou, Arctic Fox, Red Fox, and Polar Bears, Canada
  • Association of Environmental Factors with Seasonal Intensity of Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae Seropositivity among Arctic Caribou
  • Local Knowledge to Enhance Wildlife Population Health Surveillance: Conserving Muskoxen and Caribou in the Canadian Arctic
  • Association of Environmental Factors with Seasonal Intensity of Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae Seropositivity among Arctic Caribou

  • Variation of Hair Cortisol in Two Herds of Migratory Caribou (Rangifer tarandus): Implications for Health Monitoring

  • Project: Tracking Change: Traditional Knowledge and Monitoring of Wildlife Health in Northern Canada
  • Project: Northern Caribou Canada. Contact: Clive Tesar (Clive Tesar Consulting)
  • Project: CircumArctic Collaboration to Monitor Caribou and Wild Reindeer (CARMA network), including resources Standardized Monitoring of Rangifer Health During International Polar Year
  • Project: Community-based Muskox and Caribou Health Monitoring / Community Based Wildlife health Surveillance Program Contact: Susan Kutz
• Yukon
  • Detecting and Monitoring Wildlife Parasites: Determining the Current Extent and Future Impact of the Winter Tick (Dermacentor albipictus) in the Yukon and Beyond
  • Improving Widescale Monitoring of Ectoparasite Presence in Northern Canadian Wildlife with the Aid of Citizen Science

  • Comparative Prevalence and Intensity of Endoparasites in a Dynamic Boreal Ungulate Community

• Northwest Territories

  • Literature Review and Interviews: Indigenous Ways of Knowing Boreal Caribou Population

  • Monitoring Barren-Ground Caribou Body Condition with Denésǫłıné Traditional Knowledge

  • Gwich’in Traditional Knowledge: Woodland Caribou, Boreal Population

  • Tracking Change: Traditional Knowledge and Monitoring of Wildlife Health in Northern Canada

• British Columbia
  • Project: Caribou Health Monitoring in British Columbia. Project Contact: Caeley Thacker (Government of British Columbia)
  • Health Survey of Boreal Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in Northeastern British Columbia, Canada
  • Assessing the Health-fitness Dynamics of Endangered Mountain Caribou and the Influence of Maternal Penning
  • Evaluating the Use of Hair as a Non-invasive Indicator of Trace Mineral Status in Woodland Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou)
  • Seasonal Patterns in Nutritional Condition of Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) in the Southern Northwest Territories and Northeastern British Columbia, Canada
• Alberta
  • Caribou Mortality and Disease Prevalence in West-central Alberta
  • High Prevalence of Prion Protein Genotype Associated with Resistance to Chronic Wasting Disease in One Alberta Woodland Caribou Population
  • Webinar: Social and Economic Dimensions of Chronic Wasting Disease in Alberta
  • Project: Assessing Pathogen Prevalence and the Health of Ungulates in West-central Alberta Caribou Ranges. Project contact: Laura Finnegan (FRI Research)
• Saskatchewan

  • Population and Habitat Ecology of Boreal Caribou and their Predators in the Saskatchewan Boreal Shield

• Quebec
  • Toxoplasma gondii and Related Sarcocystidae Parasites in Harvested Caribou from Nunavik, Canada

  • A Long Time Ago in the Future: Caribou and The People of Ungava: Ungava Peninsula Caribou Aboriginal Round Table

  • From Diet to Hair and Blood: Empirical Estimation of Discrimination Factors for C and N Stable Isotopes in Five Terrestrial Mammals

• Quebec/ Labrador

  • Body-Condition Dynamics of a Northern Ungulate Gaining Body Condition in Winter
  • Regulation of a Large Herd of Migratory Caribou: Summer Nutrition Affects Calf Growth and Body Reserves of Dams
• Newfoundland and Labrador

  • Spatial Dynamics Of The Rise And Fall Of Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) In Newfoundland

  • Project: HERD: Inuit Voices on Caribou Project Contact: David Borish (University of Guelph)

CaSe STUDIES: International resources and projects

• “If the reindeer die, everything dies”: The Mental Health of a Sámi Community Exposed to a Mining Project in Swedish Sápmi

• Evaluating Indices of Nutritional Condition for Caribou (Rangifer tarandus): Which are the Most Valuable and Why?

• Climate change reduces reproductive success of an Arctic herbivore through trophic mismatch

• Survival and Reproduction in Arctic Caribou are Associated with Summer Forage and Insect Harassment

Field Guides, Protocols, Educational tools, and visuals

• Circum Artic Rangifer Monitoring and Assessment Network (CARMA) Field guides and protocols and Demonstration video
• Bathurst Caribou Heath Guide and poster
• Alaska Department of Fish and Game Caribou Health and Disease: A Pocket Guide
• Textbook by Tryland & Kutz Reindeer and Caribou: Health and Disease
• Project: The Rangifer Anatomy Project: Developing Tools for Community and Scientific Approaches to Caribou Structure and Function. Contact: Susan Kutz

• Project: Kutz Research Group - Teaching Materials (NSERC PromoScience)

• Protocol: Morphological diagnosis of protostrongylids (dorsal - spined) infecting muskoxen and caribou in the Canadian Arctic
• Video tutorial  2009 Monitoring Caribou - [CARMA] Initiative (ANTHC-RAMP) full version and associated Dolphin and Union Caribou sample kit  (note that these two resources are part of the broader "Community-based Muskox and Caribou Health Monitoring / Community Based Wildlife health Surveillance Program", linked under 'canadian arctic', above.)

Contacts with expertise on boreal caribou health monitoring

• Coming soon!

More information & Version History

Explore the complete CCLM collection of caribou health monitoring resources by clicking here. 

Learn about the National Boreal Caribou Knowledge Consortium by clicking here. 

Should the reader have any questions about this page, or have any resources they would like to add to this page, kindly contact the NBCKC Secretariat. 

Page launch: November 21, 2024