Special Concern Barren-ground Photo credit: Terry Parker.
Theateened Woodland (Boreal) Photo credit: Terry Parker.
Endangered Woodland (Mountain) Photo credit: Milo Burcham.
Endangered Peary Photo credit: Roy Hamaguchi, Ursus Photography.
Losing Ground -
Caribou Under Threat
The chances are, if you are Canadian, you have a caribou in your pocket. Since 1937 an engraved image of a caribou has been featured on the “tails” side of millions of Canadian quarters. The caribou is a living Canadian icon, nature’s very own Canadian Idol.
From the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic, various subspecies of caribou are found in windswept arctic tundra, remote inland rainforest mountain ranges, or dense boreal forests. The different caribou herds have all played an important role in sustaining Aboriginal cultures for millennia, by providing food and clothing as well as spiritual strength.
Quick Facts
Caribou are a symbol of wildness and abundance. Films and photographs of vast caribou herds stir awe and wonder in the human imagination. These peaceful, graceful animals ask only for room to roam, plants and lichen to graze, and safe places to birth their calves.
All this and more is why we celebrate the caribou by placing its image on the Canadian 25-cent piece. However, the flip side of the Canadian quarter story is a sadder tale.
In British Columbia, the Dawson’s caribou, an ecotype once occupying the Queen Charlotte Islands, became extinct in 1908 when the last one was shot for a museum specimen. It had taken less than 150 years from first contact with Europeans for the Haida Nation’s caribou to be wiped out.
Caribou herds are in big trouble across the length and breadth of North America. In many places the battle has already been lost. Caribou have been eliminated from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, due to human actions like over-hunting and habitat destruction. Once ranging as far south as central Idaho, now only one small herd spends time in the Lower 48 states.
Today caribou habitat is being lost in ever-greater amounts. In the southern areas industrial clear-cut logging is decimating the intact and old-growth forests caribou need for their survival. Throughout caribou territory mining, hydro dams and power corridors also negatively impact habitat. The oil and gas industry is hitting caribou from two directions. First the industry causes habitat loss through industrial development associated with exploration and extraction. As well, it is largely responsible for the devastating effects predicted from climate change.
This education report is a wake-up call for all North Americans — all citizens of Caribou Nation — to act now to protect our three subspecies of caribou: woodland, barren-ground, and Peary.
Read on to learn how citizen action in Canada can inspire our leaders to enact and enforce effective endangered species legislation to conserve endangered wildlife, including caribou. Find out what Canadians and Americans can do to challenge the oil, timber, mining and hydro industries to do the right thing and stay out of important caribou habitat. Please join us in keeping the true north truly wild and free: Caribou Nation!
