Widespread declines in woodland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou) continue in Alberta
Nowhere across Canada is the continued persistence of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou (Gmelin, 1788)) more uncertain than in Alberta due to widespread industrial development. A recent Government of Canada critical habitat review determined that habitat conditions within all Alberta borea...
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crcansciencepubl:10.1139/cjz-2013-0123 2024-10-13T14:10:24+00:00 Widespread declines in woodland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou) continue in Alberta Hervieux, D. Hebblewhite, M. DeCesare, N.J. Russell, M. Smith, K. Robertson, S. Boutin, S. 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2013-0123 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjz-2013-0123 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjz-2013-0123 en eng Canadian Science Publishing http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 91, issue 12, page 872-882 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 journal-article 2013 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2013-0123 2024-09-19T04:09:48Z Nowhere across Canada is the continued persistence of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou (Gmelin, 1788)) more uncertain than in Alberta due to widespread industrial development. A recent Government of Canada critical habitat review determined that habitat conditions within all Alberta boreal ecotype caribou ranges are unlikely or very unlikely to allow for self-sustaining caribou populations. This habitat-based assessment was based only indirectly on empirical population trends. Here, we estimated empirical population trend and growth rate (λ) for 13 of Alberta’s 16 remaining woodland caribou populations (plus one adjacent population from Saskatchewan) from 1994 to 2012 using demographic monitoring of adult female survival and calf recruitment. We captured and radio-collared a total of 1337 adult female caribou in 14 populations and estimated the mean annual adult female survival across all populations as 0.851. We conducted 158 late-winter calf recruitment surveys across the 14 populations classifying 20 872 caribou and estimated mean recruitment of 0.154 calves/cow (i.e., 0.077 female calves/cow). We then combined annual estimates of adult female survival and female calf recruitment within each population in a simple age-structured population model to estimate population trend. Annual population growth rate across caribou populations averaged 0.918, and was significantly declining, λ < 1.0, for 10 of the 14 caribou populations. Our results confirm that woodland caribou are declining rapidly (with a realized decline of approximately 50% every 8 years) across Alberta, and support conclusions from previous habitat-based assessments that the population viability of caribou is currently compromised, supporting development and implementation of recovery actions to reverse trends. Article in Journal/Newspaper Rangifer tarandus Canadian Science Publishing Canada Canadian Journal of Zoology 91 12 872 882 |
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Open Polar |
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Canadian Science Publishing |
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crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
description |
Nowhere across Canada is the continued persistence of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou (Gmelin, 1788)) more uncertain than in Alberta due to widespread industrial development. A recent Government of Canada critical habitat review determined that habitat conditions within all Alberta boreal ecotype caribou ranges are unlikely or very unlikely to allow for self-sustaining caribou populations. This habitat-based assessment was based only indirectly on empirical population trends. Here, we estimated empirical population trend and growth rate (λ) for 13 of Alberta’s 16 remaining woodland caribou populations (plus one adjacent population from Saskatchewan) from 1994 to 2012 using demographic monitoring of adult female survival and calf recruitment. We captured and radio-collared a total of 1337 adult female caribou in 14 populations and estimated the mean annual adult female survival across all populations as 0.851. We conducted 158 late-winter calf recruitment surveys across the 14 populations classifying 20 872 caribou and estimated mean recruitment of 0.154 calves/cow (i.e., 0.077 female calves/cow). We then combined annual estimates of adult female survival and female calf recruitment within each population in a simple age-structured population model to estimate population trend. Annual population growth rate across caribou populations averaged 0.918, and was significantly declining, λ < 1.0, for 10 of the 14 caribou populations. Our results confirm that woodland caribou are declining rapidly (with a realized decline of approximately 50% every 8 years) across Alberta, and support conclusions from previous habitat-based assessments that the population viability of caribou is currently compromised, supporting development and implementation of recovery actions to reverse trends. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hervieux, D. Hebblewhite, M. DeCesare, N.J. Russell, M. Smith, K. Robertson, S. Boutin, S. |
spellingShingle |
Hervieux, D. Hebblewhite, M. DeCesare, N.J. Russell, M. Smith, K. Robertson, S. Boutin, S. Widespread declines in woodland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou) continue in Alberta |
author_facet |
Hervieux, D. Hebblewhite, M. DeCesare, N.J. Russell, M. Smith, K. Robertson, S. Boutin, S. |
author_sort |
Hervieux, D. |
title |
Widespread declines in woodland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou) continue in Alberta |
title_short |
Widespread declines in woodland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou) continue in Alberta |
title_full |
Widespread declines in woodland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou) continue in Alberta |
title_fullStr |
Widespread declines in woodland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou) continue in Alberta |
title_full_unstemmed |
Widespread declines in woodland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou) continue in Alberta |
title_sort |
widespread declines in woodland caribou ( rangifer tarandus caribou) continue in alberta |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2013-0123 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjz-2013-0123 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjz-2013-0123 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Rangifer tarandus |
genre_facet |
Rangifer tarandus |
op_source |
Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 91, issue 12, page 872-882 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 |
op_rights |
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2013-0123 |
container_title |
Canadian Journal of Zoology |
container_volume |
91 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
872 |
op_container_end_page |
882 |
_version_ |
1812817668103733248 |