Caribou have been a dietary staple for northern hemisphere humans for thousands of years. At one point, caribou lived in 80% of Canada. Now, herds have declined by up to 80 to 90%.  Unfortunately, in the present day, caribou may soon be being removed from the menu. This is a big problem not only for the animals involved but also many Indigenous peoples in northern Canada who depend on caribou as a food source.

“They are very deep in the psyche,” said John B. Zoe, a member of the Tłįcho First Nation. “Our language and our way of life are all based on the caribou.”

From the 1980s to now, the barren-ground caribou that Zoe’s people depend on shrunk in number from 450,000 to around 18,000 thousand now. The amount the Indigenous people who depend on the herd were able to hunt dropped from 14,000 to 300 in the same period.

Zoe said this draws people away from the land and means the way of life of many Indigenous groups will be lost. Tundra lands which were once full of herds numbering in the thousands are now empty. To many people, this is a distant problem, not of any concern to an average Canadian. This is not the case, however.

For one thing, all Canadian quarters would have to be destroyed if the caribou went extinct. In biological terms, caribou are also what is known as an “umbrella species”, in other words, they are the centre of the food web. Everything feeds off them, whether it be bears scavenging their carcasses or soil having their nutrients replenished with the caribou’s droppings.

Human action, such as hunting, the industrialization of territory for mining, and climate change are causing the decline in caribou numbers. The latter of those may have positive effects for caribou, who will perhaps have more access to vegetation. Regardless, caribou will be required to adapt, if we are not able to adapt our own behaviour.

Provincial governments are scrambling to save their respective populations, some of which are dwindling in number to the near single digits. The Quebec government abandoned a plan to move the remaining 18 members of the Val d’Or herd, and are mulling over other options. A federal plan to save the caribou focuses on preserving habitats of the varying herds across Canada, which puts the pressure on the provinces. So, can the caribou survive?

“If I were to say no, I would be damning the ability of the human community to respond to our own living world. I have no doubt we have enough knowledge to halt the decline. It may sound Pollyannish, but it will take collaborative work.”

Read more about the different dwindling caribou herds across Canada, and how important their survival is to Canadians everywhere in Canadian Wildlife magazine, Nov + Dec 2017 edition.

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