Conservation

The ESRF partially funded a highly important conservation project on an imperiled population of endangered woodland caribou. Due to low recruitment, the Chisana Herd has experienced a sharp decline in numbers since 1980 when it had 1,800 individuals, the current population is only 270. The small population has made the species extremely vulnerable to natural predators, which present a significant threat to calves in the first month after birth.

The purpose of this two-year project was to increase calf survival rates in the Chisana Herd and therefore increase the likelihood that the herd population can sustain itself into the future.

During the spring season, the pregnant adult females of the herd were steered into a temporary enclosure that allowed the females to feed and give birth without the threat of predator attacks. After remaining in the enclosure during the critical neonatal period, caribou were released and monitored through telemetry and aerial surveys.

Follow-up surveys show that there was a 75% survival rate for the protected calves, versus a 12.5% survival rate for exposed calves. In addition to increasing the size of the Chisana Herd population immediately, these innovative and successful methods of decreasing calf mortality may assist other conservation efforts for the woodland caribou across Canada.