Hair Biomarkers to Support Barren-ground Caribou Health Monitoring and Management ...

• Main Author: Rakic, Filip
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Veterinary Medicine 2022
• Subjects: Caribou; Wildlife Monitoring; Wildlife Health; Veterinary Science; Arctic; Canada; Rangifer tarandus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/prism/39848; https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/114765

Barren-ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) are a keystone species of Canada, whose population health is a current and future management priority. Many of these historically numerous populations, including the Bluenose-East (BNE) and Dolphin and Union (DU) herds, have severely declined in the last two decades, thus there is an impetus to understand the health status of these populations. Considering the challenges associated with monitoring Arctic wildlife, hair is a practically advantageous sample type that is currently opportunistically collected. I evaluated two biomarkers derived from caribou hair (trace element and cortisol concentrations) in the context of opportunistic monitoring and review the literature to understand how to best orient Rangifer health research into management and conservation. First, I reviewed the most abundant health literature on caribou, the Rangifer infectious disease literature, and documented numerous barriers to health information dissemination and ...