'It’s game over': Last 'Grey Ghost' caribou herd down to 3

[Fancy]

Doesn't the Bible give man dominion over the animals? We're just excercising our dominion over the animals of the world.

The bible has nothing to do with it. Destroying critical habitat to obliterate a species just shows ignorance, carelessness and wanton disregard for the future.

[Gone_Fishin]

That is sad to read about.

With all the caribou I saw shot in the NWT over the last 5 years that I have worked up there I would almost be surprised if the entire species doesn't just vanish during my lifetime.

Hunting has had zero effect on the herd, and has zero effect on the northern herds. The South Selkirk herd hasn't been hunted in close to 40 years, but has been extirpated since hunting stopped. Habitat and a spike in predators have doomed the Selkirk herd. We need more wolves, cougars, and grizzly bears removed from caribou recovery areas, and contiguous habitat corridors without development encroachment. Too bad the NDP has decided to let the last caribou calf be eaten by a grizzly bear.

[Fancy]

Mountain caribou herds in BC have been declining for decades as the impacts of logging, industrial activity and recreation spread over the mountain backcountry, leaving isolated herds with nowhere left to run. BC’s Mountain Caribou Recovery Implementation Plan, after more than a decade, has failed to stop the loss of caribou, let alone recover populations.

https://wildsight.ca/blog/2018/04/12/on ... irks-herd/

[Gone_Fishin]

Mountain caribou herds in BC have been declining for decades as the impacts of logging, industrial activity and recreation spread over the mountain backcountry, leaving isolated herds with nowhere left to run. BC’s Mountain Caribou Recovery Implementation Plan, after more than a decade, has failed to stop the loss of caribou, let alone recover populations.

https://wildsight.ca/blog/2018/04/12/on ... irks-herd/

Wildsight is an anti-hunting organization. Filter their comments with that in mind. I have some data on recent initiatives that I will add when I get some time.

[Fancy]

Here's an article from 2015:

The South Selkirk herd had just 18 caribou by March of last year — down from 46 in 2009.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/br ... e22480868/

[Bettyb]

I know a few are taken out by avalanches each year. The grizzly love digging them out of the bottom of slide paths in the spring.

[Queen K]

Has there been a wolf reduction program in place, ever? Or in the last decade? Two?

Yes. Both at Tumbler Ridge and in the South Selkirks in the past couple of years. The herds stabilized. In the 1980s, large scale wolf reduction programs were in place, and all ungulate populations benefited. Political will to follow science is often lacking when emotions guide public opinion.

How does the Gray Ghost Caribou fit into all of this?

Now that there are a reported three left?

[Queen K]

Unfortunately, the government has had its hands tied by public opinion and has been reluctant to use science-based methods to help caribou herds recover.

The short and skinny of it, as mentioned in the article, is that if we're going to rebuild the caribou population, we're going to have to do wolf control, and that includes aerial gunning and the use of 1080. We would end up with both wolves and caribou under this plan. Public hysteria over wolf control means we'll end up with wolves and no caribou. Until we remove that public hysteria, game managers basically are powerless to do the right thing.

I'd like to show caribou and wolves to my grandkids. I don't think I'll be able to show them caribou, unless we move forward with predator control now, before the caribou are extirpated.

Wolf control.

Is it possible to save the Grey Ghost herd of three now?

[Urban Cowboy]

Unfortunately, the government has had its hands tied by public opinion and has been reluctant to use science-based methods to help caribou herds recover.

The short and skinny of it, as mentioned in the article, is that if we're going to rebuild the caribou population, we're going to have to do wolf control, and that includes aerial gunning and the use of 1080. We would end up with both wolves and caribou under this plan. Public hysteria over wolf control means we'll end up with wolves and no caribou. Until we remove that public hysteria, game managers basically are powerless to do the right thing.

I'd like to show caribou and wolves to my grandkids. I don't think I'll be able to show them caribou, unless we move forward with predator control now, before the caribou are extirpated.

Wolf control.

Is it possible to save the Grey Ghost herd of three now?

If there is no male left to impregnate the females how would that come about?

This is another prime example of what happens when clueless zealots do in fact get their way.

With wolf population out of control, and caribou off the menu, do people think they are going to quit eating?

Let's sit back and see what the wolves wipe out next.

The other aspect of this that concerns me is hunting of animals, where most of the population is subjected to rigid hunting regulations, while first nations for the most part do as they please. When it comes to protection of any species, and subsequent hunting regulations, they should apply to everyone equally. Then and only then might these animals have a chance.

[Queen K]

Some think that may be a conspiracy brought on by a eco-lunatic group.

[Queen K]

[
https://wildsight.ca/blog/2018/04/12/on ... irks-herd/

Wildsight is an anti-hunting organization. Filter their comments with that in mind. I have some data on recent initiatives that I will add when I get some time.

Are you suggesting that Wildsight is fudging the news that there are only three females left?

[Snman]

Just caught up with this thread. Sad tale indeed. The discussion about wolves is rather interesting as I believe they have been decimated and then re introduced in some areas. Montana perhaps? Anyway, very sad when a species is kaput. More so if man had a hand in it, which cannot be uncommon. imho

[Fancy]

Yellowstone wolves were reintroduced - I followed the "sisters". It's a shame though this particular herd of caribou was decimated so badly in the last few years.

[Gone_Fishin]

Auditor General rips Catherine McKenna over the caribou extirpation, saying she's all talk/no action, and did nothing but go to useless meetings and create useless committees and produce useless reports. Caribou perish while McKenna goes for photo ops and fails miserably at leadership. Sounds so Trudeau-like.

[bob vernon]

And now there's the South Purcell herd. It's down to 4 animals. There's an extinction going on. Loss of habitat and changing environment. Snowmobilers going into restricted areas?