Demographic responses of nearly extirpated endangered mountain caribou to recovery actions in Central British Columbia
Abstract Recovering endangered species is a difficult and often controversial task that challenges status quo land uses. Southern Mountain caribou are a threatened ecotype of caribou that historically ranged in southwestern Canada and northwestern USA and epitomize the tension between resource extra...
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crwiley:10.1002/eap.2580 2024-09-30T14:33:41+00:00 Demographic responses of nearly extirpated endangered mountain caribou to recovery actions in Central British Columbia McNay, R. Scott Lamb, Clayton T. Giguere, Line Williams, Sara H. Martin, Hans Sutherland, Glenn D. Hebblewhite, Mark 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eap.2580 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/eap.2580 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/eap.2580 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/eap.2580 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Ecological Applications volume 32, issue 5 ISSN 1051-0761 1939-5582 journal-article 2022 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2580 2024-09-17T04:48:47Z Abstract Recovering endangered species is a difficult and often controversial task that challenges status quo land uses. Southern Mountain caribou are a threatened ecotype of caribou that historically ranged in southwestern Canada and northwestern USA and epitomize the tension between resource extraction, biodiversity conservation, and Indigenous Peoples' treaty rights. Human‐induced habitat alteration is considered the ultimate cause of caribou population declines, whereby an increased abundance of primary prey—such as moose and deer—elevates predator populations and creates unsustainable caribou mortality. Here we focus on the Klinse‐Za and Quintette subpopulations, part of the endangered Central Group of Southern Mountain caribou in British Columbia. These subpopulations were trending toward immediate extirpation until a collaborative group initiated recovery by implementing two short‐term recovery actions. We test the effectiveness of these recovery actions—maternity penning of adult females and their calves, and the reduction of a primary predator, wolves—in increasing vital rates and population growth. Klinse‐Za received both recovery actions, whereas Quintette only received wolf reductions, providing an opportunity to test efficacy between recovery actions. Between 1995 and 2021, we followed 162 collared female caribou for 414 animal‐years to estimate survival and used aerial counts to estimate population abundance and calf recruitment. We combined these data in an integrated population model to estimate female population growth, total population abundance, and recovery action effectiveness. Results suggest that the subpopulations were declining rapidly (λ = 0.90–0.93 ) before interventions and would have been functionally extirpated (<10 animals) within 10–15 years. Wolf reduction increased population growth rates by ~0.12 for each subpopulation. Wolf reduction halted the decline of Quintette caribou and allowed them to increase (λ = 1.05 ) , but alone would have only stabilized the Klinse‐Za (λ = ... Article in Journal/Newspaper caribou Wiley Online Library Canada British Columbia ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) Ecological Applications 32 5 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Recovering endangered species is a difficult and often controversial task that challenges status quo land uses. Southern Mountain caribou are a threatened ecotype of caribou that historically ranged in southwestern Canada and northwestern USA and epitomize the tension between resource extraction, biodiversity conservation, and Indigenous Peoples' treaty rights. Human‐induced habitat alteration is considered the ultimate cause of caribou population declines, whereby an increased abundance of primary prey—such as moose and deer—elevates predator populations and creates unsustainable caribou mortality. Here we focus on the Klinse‐Za and Quintette subpopulations, part of the endangered Central Group of Southern Mountain caribou in British Columbia. These subpopulations were trending toward immediate extirpation until a collaborative group initiated recovery by implementing two short‐term recovery actions. We test the effectiveness of these recovery actions—maternity penning of adult females and their calves, and the reduction of a primary predator, wolves—in increasing vital rates and population growth. Klinse‐Za received both recovery actions, whereas Quintette only received wolf reductions, providing an opportunity to test efficacy between recovery actions. Between 1995 and 2021, we followed 162 collared female caribou for 414 animal‐years to estimate survival and used aerial counts to estimate population abundance and calf recruitment. We combined these data in an integrated population model to estimate female population growth, total population abundance, and recovery action effectiveness. Results suggest that the subpopulations were declining rapidly (λ = 0.90–0.93 ) before interventions and would have been functionally extirpated (<10 animals) within 10–15 years. Wolf reduction increased population growth rates by ~0.12 for each subpopulation. Wolf reduction halted the decline of Quintette caribou and allowed them to increase (λ = 1.05 ) , but alone would have only stabilized the Klinse‐Za (λ = ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
McNay, R. Scott Lamb, Clayton T. Giguere, Line Williams, Sara H. Martin, Hans Sutherland, Glenn D. Hebblewhite, Mark |
spellingShingle |
McNay, R. Scott Lamb, Clayton T. Giguere, Line Williams, Sara H. Martin, Hans Sutherland, Glenn D. Hebblewhite, Mark Demographic responses of nearly extirpated endangered mountain caribou to recovery actions in Central British Columbia |
author_facet |
McNay, R. Scott Lamb, Clayton T. Giguere, Line Williams, Sara H. Martin, Hans Sutherland, Glenn D. Hebblewhite, Mark |
author_sort |
McNay, R. Scott |
title |
Demographic responses of nearly extirpated endangered mountain caribou to recovery actions in Central British Columbia |
title_short |
Demographic responses of nearly extirpated endangered mountain caribou to recovery actions in Central British Columbia |
title_full |
Demographic responses of nearly extirpated endangered mountain caribou to recovery actions in Central British Columbia |
title_fullStr |
Demographic responses of nearly extirpated endangered mountain caribou to recovery actions in Central British Columbia |
title_full_unstemmed |
Demographic responses of nearly extirpated endangered mountain caribou to recovery actions in Central British Columbia |
title_sort |
demographic responses of nearly extirpated endangered mountain caribou to recovery actions in central british columbia |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eap.2580 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/eap.2580 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/eap.2580 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/eap.2580 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) |
geographic |
Canada British Columbia |
geographic_facet |
Canada British Columbia |
genre |
caribou |
genre_facet |
caribou |
op_source |
Ecological Applications volume 32, issue 5 ISSN 1051-0761 1939-5582 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2580 |
container_title |
Ecological Applications |
container_volume |
32 |
container_issue |
5 |
_version_ |
1811637497191464960 |