About Woodland caribou

The Woodland caribou, a large, shy cousin to the better-known reindeer and migratory tundra caribou, was once found nearly everywhere there were forests in northern North America.

Over the past 100 years, their habitat has shrunk dramatically. Today, Woodland caribou are mostly confined to Canada's northern Boreal Forest.

Why Woodland caribou are disappearing

As industrial development continues to sprawl further northward, Woodland caribou are disappearing from the Boreal forest. Here's how it happens:

1. Human activity fragments the forest

Logging, road-building and other forms of development — like mining and oil and gas development — fragment the caribous' Boreal forest habitat.

2. Competitors and predators move in

When a forest is disturbed, and begins to regrow, it provides plenty of food for the woodland caribou's bigger relative: the moose. Moose thrive in new forests, and their increasing numbers eventually attract increasing numbers of their primary predator — the wolf.

3. Caribou disappear

Increasing wolf numbers kill off, or extirpate, local populations of woodland caribou in and around disturbed forests.

The effect is slow, insidious and inevitable. In fewer than 20 years, Woodland caribou disappear from disturbed areas — perhaps forever.

Why Woodland caribou are important

Woodland caribou live in Canada's Boreal forest, in particular, on carbon-rich, Boreal Forest peatlands.

The cold temperature and high fresh water content of boreal soils slows decomposition, resulting in deep, carbon-rich soils that can be thousands of years old.

But when the Boreal Forest is developed or logged, its ability to absorb and store carbon is lost or reduced, and carbon is released to the atmosphere. A "greenhouse gas", carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere. High greenhouse gas levels affect global climate.

When we protect caribou habitat, we take a big step in combatting climate change by storing greenhouse gasses.

Woodland caribou are also an "umbrella species" -- they're sensitive to disturbance, and thrive in intact forest. When Woodland caribou populations are healthy, chances are other species in the area are healthy too.

The Boreal and carbon:
By the numbers

186 billion tonnes of carbon in Canada's Boreal

4 times more carbon stored than tropical forests

6 times more carbon stored than temperate forests

27 years' worth of global carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels!

Woodland caribou populations

Boreal woodland caribou

Boreal Woodland caribou are found across Canada's Boreal Forest. This is the largest population of Woodland caribou in the world, but it's also threatened -- half of their habitat has disappeared in the last 50 years due to development.

Northern mountain caribou

Found in the Boreal forest of northern BC, Northwest Territories and the Yukon.

Southern Mountain caribou

This threatened and endangered population is found in the Rockies of British Columbia and Alberta. A sub-population, the Mountain caribou, is recognized by British Columbia as endangered.

Newfoundland Woodland caribou

The island of Newfoundland is home to the one regional population of woodland caribou that is not at risk.

Atlantic (Gaspesie) caribou

This endangered population is the last vestige of a population that once roamed New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and the New England states. It is the only population of Woodland caribou that has a completed recovery strategy under the federal Species at Risk Act.

Dawson's Woodland caribou

The extinct Dawson's population once lived on the islands of Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) on the northwest coast of British Columbia, Now, there's only one -- stuffed and mounted in the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria.

Types of caribou in Canada

Woodland caribou

Rangifer tarandus tarandus

A small, dark forest-dwelling caribou found across Canada's Boreal forest.

Barren ground caribou

Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus

This migratory caribou lives just north of the woodland caribou on Canada's tundra.

Peary caribou

Rangifer tarandus peary

This small, white-coated caribou lives in Canada's arctic.

Porcupine caribou

Rangifer tarandus granti

Found in Yukon and the Northwest Territories.