By Justin C. Ray, The New York Times, December 23, 2011
CHRISTMAS is tied to the magical north and to the reindeer — creatures
of mythical power that fly through the night across the world, helping to
distribute happiness and good will. But reindeer do exist — we call them
caribou in North America — and these animals and their home in the boreal
woodlands and on the barren-ground tundra are in trouble.
For the past decade, I have been conducting aerial surveys of caribou
herds. As I sit strapped in small planes in minus-20-degree temperatures, it
amazes me that that they survive against the challenges of their environment —
particularly the females. These animals spend most of the year on the move and
live in places that seem intolerably harsh. They undertake long journeys of
hundreds or thousands of miles and return to give birth in the same traditional
areas. Such large-scale migrations are an ecological phenomenon that, sadly, is
fast disappearing across the planet.
Much of the far north is commonly thought to be wilderness. But this
situation has been changing rapidly over the last decade. Caribou require a
great deal of space to survive, but the clearing of land for one development
project after another, combined with the building of roads and other means of
access for resource exploration, are bringing about profound changes to their
habitat and making it easier for hunters to reach them.
A changing climate is adding additional stress. More winter rain and
ice make it difficult for them to dig for the food that lies under the snow.
The timing between caribou arrivals on calving grounds and spring plant growth,
calibrated over thousands of years, are more and more mismatched, threatening
calf survival. Unpredictable weather patterns are increasing mortality as well,
and the escalating intensity and frequency of fires in forests and on the
tundra present an additional threat.
During the past century, caribou have vanished from at least 40
percent of their southern range. They are no longer found in Montana,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Nova Scotia,
Prince Edward Island or New Brunswick. Many populations are currently in decline,
some by as much as 85 percent over the past 10 years alone. Nevertheless,
caribou migrations continue to represent one of the last great wildlife
spectacles on earth.
Sadly, the wild lands that support caribou are up for grabs. The
epicenter of their range is in the vast hydrocarbon-rich reaches of western
Canada and Alaska, where millions of barrels of oil await extraction for
markets in North America and Asia. We can’t get the oil out fast enough, and as
a result, almost every caribou population in the boreal forests of northeastern
British Columbia and Alberta is rapidly losing ground.
In the barren lands of the far north, where caribou numbers have
undergone natural fluctuations over decades, the question is whether the
declining populations will have the chance and the space to rebound as their
ranges, particularly their calving areas, face mineral exploration, mine, oil
and gas development, and a changing climate. In these regions, caribou hold
tremendous cultural importance to northern people. Stresses on this species
reverberate in the daily lives of those who share their range.
Scientists who study caribou are gaining a better understanding of
what these animals need to survive, and how they respond to changes in their
landscape. That knowledge suggests we move with considerably more restraint in
the development of wild places that support this great animal. With
comprehensive planning, we can maintain landscapes to safeguard caribou
populations before all that remains of this Yuletide symbol of the natural
world is a wintry dream from our childhood.
Justina C. Ray, a wildlife
biologist, is executive director and senior scientist at the Wildlife
Conservation Society Canada.
1 comment:
Just throwing this out there....new york adirondack parks 6.1 million acres w it's forever wild status is rapidly approaching old growth status once again and is in fact more wild than it was 100 years ago. It's low and shrinking whitetail population combined with the absence of wolves and mountain lions would make it a prime location to reintroduce caribou. The woodland caribou population out west in the selkirk mts seems to be a losing battle due to major predation, regardless of its vast amount of prime habitat. Let the Adirondack mountains be the new focus to save this beautiful threatened species before wolves and cougars migrate back to this vast wilderness. This is the best place in the lower 48 to give this species a head start. Just food for thought. Would love to hear your feed back and discussion.
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