Caribou crisis

TWENTY-FIVE to 30 million. That’s how many bison it’s estimated roamed North America in the 16th century. By the late 1880s, however, there were fewer than 100 left — hunted to near extinction. You’d hope North Americans would have learned a lesson, but it appears we’re doomed to repeat the feat, albeit by new methods. Caribou numbered in the multi-millions through the last century, but by 2015 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature had classified the species as “vulnerable” because of a 40 per cent decline in their population over 25 years. Today, there are only about a million caribou in Canada, and most populations are declining quickly. (See “On the map,” page 28.) In its 2012 recovery strategy, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada asked each province and territory that caribou call home (they’re found everywhere except the Maritimes) to develop plans to save them. Not a single one has done so. Meanwhile, the feds are exerting pressure under the Species at Risk Act — in May 2018, they called on British Columbia to finally develop a plan to save a herd with just three animals left — but since wildlife management is a provincial/territorial responsibility, there’s not much else they can do. So if you care about caribou, you’re going to have to pressure governments to do something. It’s long past time they stepped up. Let’s just hope we’re not too late. — Aaron Kylie