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Caribou

Where they live?

Caribou

There are many subspecies of caribou. They can be found dwelling in forests, on mountains, in the tundra, and even migrating each year between the forests and tundra of the Far North. Approximately half of Canadian caribou are barren-ground caribou. This means they spend almost all of the year, sometimes even the full year, on the tundra from Alaska to Baffin Island.

The woodland caribou, the largest and darkest of the species, can be found in the boreal, or northern, forests from British Columbia and the Yukon Territory to Newfoundland and Labrador. In mountainous western areas the woodland caribou make seasonal movements from their winter range on the mountainside to their summer range on the tundra. Those in eastern areas occupy mature forest and open bogs and ferns, or low-lying wet areas.

Did you know?

Caribou have scent glands at the base of their ankles that are used when the animal is in danger. It will rear up on its hind legs to release a scent that alerts the other caribou to the danger it is facing. Caribou's average weight is 55kg to 318kg. There are two separate caribou herds found in the Arctic Refuge. The Porcupine Caribou Herd – named after the Porcupine River found within its range – which numbers about 128,000 and makes long migrations each year between winter habitat in Canada and Alaska south of the Brooks Range, and summer habitat (calving and post-calving) on the Arctic Refuge sea front plains. The second herd is the Central Arctic Herd, which uses the middle portion of the North Slope including the area around Prudhoe Bay and the western part of the Refuge, and numbers at 27,000 animals. Almost 30 years of research have shown that the concentrated calving and post-calving area of the Porcupine herd is located within the Refuge’s coastal plain nearly every year. Both herds frequently use the northwest portion of the Refuge during the post-calving period for insect relief habitat. One of the greatest myths concerning caribou is that oil development has caused an increase in the Central Arctic herd’s numbers. Before development, the herd contained about 5,000 animals. Today it numbers around 27,000. This increase is largely attributable to several years with mild weather and has nothing to do with development. In truth, the Central Arctic herd’s calving activity has shifted away from developed areas to alternative calving grounds with poorer quality habitat. The Porcupine herd has no alternative calving areas to shift to because of the densities of the herd and the narrowness of the coastal plain within the Arctic Refuge; there are 5 times more caribou in about one-fifth the area compared to Prudhoe Bay.12 On the few occasions when weather has prevented the Porcupine herd from reaching the coastal plain before calving, calf survival was significantly diminished.13 The caribou need the coastal plain during the calving and post-calving periods because the core calving area of the Arctic Refuge coastal plain provides the highest quality forage, lowest density of predators, and optimal insect relief. Should they be forced to shift their calving activities away from the region because of oil development, calves would be vulnerable to higher predation and lower quality forage possibly leading to a stop in their numbers. Numerous scientific articles written by leading caribou researchers clearly document that industrial development has resulted in changing caribou movements and distribution within the oil fields displacing caribou from the highest quality habitat.

Info from: http://www.defenders.org/sites/default/files/publications/caribou_in_the_arctic_national_wildlife_refuge.pdf

The Peary caribou are a smaller species alight-coloured. They can only be found on the islands of the Canadian arctic archipelago and their population is numbered at 10,000. This species does not normally have significant migrations.

Info from: http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/kids/animal-facts/caribou.aspnd