Population growth and status of the Nushagak Peninsula caribou herd in southwest Alaska following reintroduction, 1988 - 1993
Caribou were reintroduced to the Nushagak Peninsula, Alaska in February 1988, after an absence of over 100 years. The purpose was to reestablish caribou in the area and once again provide hunting to local residents. The Nushagak Peninsula caribou herd (NPCH) has grown rapidly from 146 reintroduced c...
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Septentrio Academic Publishing
1996
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ftunitroemsoe:oai:ojs.henry.ub.uit.no:article/1270 2023-05-15T18:03:55+02:00 Population growth and status of the Nushagak Peninsula caribou herd in southwest Alaska following reintroduction, 1988 - 1993 Hinkes, Michael T. Van Daele, Lawrence J. 1996-01-01 application/pdf https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/rangifer/article/view/1270 https://doi.org/10.7557/2.16.4.1270 eng eng Septentrio Academic Publishing https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/rangifer/article/view/1270/1209 https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/rangifer/article/view/1270 doi:10.7557/2.16.4.1270 Copyright (c) 2015 Michael T. Hinkes, Lawrence J. Van Daele http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ CC-BY Rangifer; Vol 16 (1996): Special Issue No. 9; 301-310 1890-6729 Alaska caribou population growth reintroduction info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 1996 ftunitroemsoe https://doi.org/10.7557/2.16.4.1270 2021-08-16T14:55:41Z Caribou were reintroduced to the Nushagak Peninsula, Alaska in February 1988, after an absence of over 100 years. The purpose was to reestablish caribou in the area and once again provide hunting to local residents. The Nushagak Peninsula caribou herd (NPCH) has grown rapidly from 146 reintroduced caribou to over 1000 in 6 years at an exponential rate of increase of r = 0.317 or about 38%. The dramatic growth of the herd was attributed to the initial high percentage of females in the herd, high calf production and survival, pristine range, few predators and no hunting. Abundant high quality forage on the Nushagak Peninsula is the probable reason for the enhanced body condition and high natality even among 2-year-olds, and it has most likely contributed to the high calf survival and recruitment. Lack of predators and hunting has allowed calf and adult mortality to remain low. Although the size of the NPCH has grown steadily over the past 6 years, no significant dispersal from the peninsula has occurred. The population density of the NPCH was estimated to be 1.0/km2 in 1993. We believe the herd will continue to grow, and could reach a density of 2.3/km2 by 1998, even with a 10% harvest beginning in 1995. While the current growth of the NPCH makes the réintroduction a success, the increasing density, lack of dispersal and potential for over-grazing, presents managers with hard decisions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Rangifer Alaska University of Tromsø: Septentrio Academic Publishing Rangifer 16 4 301 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Tromsø: Septentrio Academic Publishing |
op_collection_id |
ftunitroemsoe |
language |
English |
topic |
Alaska caribou population growth reintroduction |
spellingShingle |
Alaska caribou population growth reintroduction Hinkes, Michael T. Van Daele, Lawrence J. Population growth and status of the Nushagak Peninsula caribou herd in southwest Alaska following reintroduction, 1988 - 1993 |
topic_facet |
Alaska caribou population growth reintroduction |
description |
Caribou were reintroduced to the Nushagak Peninsula, Alaska in February 1988, after an absence of over 100 years. The purpose was to reestablish caribou in the area and once again provide hunting to local residents. The Nushagak Peninsula caribou herd (NPCH) has grown rapidly from 146 reintroduced caribou to over 1000 in 6 years at an exponential rate of increase of r = 0.317 or about 38%. The dramatic growth of the herd was attributed to the initial high percentage of females in the herd, high calf production and survival, pristine range, few predators and no hunting. Abundant high quality forage on the Nushagak Peninsula is the probable reason for the enhanced body condition and high natality even among 2-year-olds, and it has most likely contributed to the high calf survival and recruitment. Lack of predators and hunting has allowed calf and adult mortality to remain low. Although the size of the NPCH has grown steadily over the past 6 years, no significant dispersal from the peninsula has occurred. The population density of the NPCH was estimated to be 1.0/km2 in 1993. We believe the herd will continue to grow, and could reach a density of 2.3/km2 by 1998, even with a 10% harvest beginning in 1995. While the current growth of the NPCH makes the réintroduction a success, the increasing density, lack of dispersal and potential for over-grazing, presents managers with hard decisions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hinkes, Michael T. Van Daele, Lawrence J. |
author_facet |
Hinkes, Michael T. Van Daele, Lawrence J. |
author_sort |
Hinkes, Michael T. |
title |
Population growth and status of the Nushagak Peninsula caribou herd in southwest Alaska following reintroduction, 1988 - 1993 |
title_short |
Population growth and status of the Nushagak Peninsula caribou herd in southwest Alaska following reintroduction, 1988 - 1993 |
title_full |
Population growth and status of the Nushagak Peninsula caribou herd in southwest Alaska following reintroduction, 1988 - 1993 |
title_fullStr |
Population growth and status of the Nushagak Peninsula caribou herd in southwest Alaska following reintroduction, 1988 - 1993 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Population growth and status of the Nushagak Peninsula caribou herd in southwest Alaska following reintroduction, 1988 - 1993 |
title_sort |
population growth and status of the nushagak peninsula caribou herd in southwest alaska following reintroduction, 1988 - 1993 |
publisher |
Septentrio Academic Publishing |
publishDate |
1996 |
url |
https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/rangifer/article/view/1270 https://doi.org/10.7557/2.16.4.1270 |
genre |
Rangifer Alaska |
genre_facet |
Rangifer Alaska |
op_source |
Rangifer; Vol 16 (1996): Special Issue No. 9; 301-310 1890-6729 |
op_relation |
https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/rangifer/article/view/1270/1209 https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/rangifer/article/view/1270 doi:10.7557/2.16.4.1270 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2015 Michael T. Hinkes, Lawrence J. Van Daele http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7557/2.16.4.1270 |
container_title |
Rangifer |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
301 |
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1766175112169521152 |