Reindeer About to Go the Way of the Polar Bear?

Study finds that 34 of 58 major herds are shrinking due to Climate Change and logging.

The University of Alberta in Edmonton released  a report  in the journal Global Change Biology, stating that caribou and reindeer populations have dwindled by an average of nearly 60 percent, and in some cases, dips have been far more extreme than that.

“I want to emphasize the negative effects this will have on Arctic people who rely on caribou for sustenance,” said Liv Vors, a population ecologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. “If the situation continues at the rate it’s going, it will have profoundly negative economic, social and spiritual consequences.”

Utilizing government archives, previously published studies, wildlife management boards, and other sources, they ended up gathering data on 58 major herds.

Of those 58, they reported that 34 were in decline, eight were gradually increasing, and 16 were lacking enough data to tell for sure.

Among the herds that were suffering, the average dip was 57 percent since the most recent peak. Some populations were much harder hit. A herd in Labrador, north of Quebec, for example, had dropped from 750 animals to fewer than 100. In the Canadian High Arctic, a herd that was 50,000 animals strong 50 or 60 years ago now numbers fewer than 1,000.

Mitigating Factors

That habitat shift and leafier vegetation, due to logging has also boosted the food supply for burgeoning populations of moose and deer. This in turn, has boosted the food supply for wolves. Caribou are easier to catch than deer or moose, though, and they’re the ones suffering the brunt of a bigger wolf population.

Climate change is another problem, albeit an indirect one. For one thing, warming has increased mosquito populations to the point where caribou spend so much time running around and shaking off insects that they don’t eat enough to make it through winter with a good supply of stored body fat.

With warming, whitetail deer have also spread further north — bringing along a parasitic disease that doesn’t sicken the deer but does kill the caribou. At the same time, spring is getting greener earlier that it used to, but caribou haven’t adjusted the timing of their migrations. As a result, birthing females are missing out on the freshest vegetation and the chance to build up the highest-quality milk for their calves.

This whole scenario is just one more example of how nature works in concert with each part of life. When you create an imbalance in nature due to human consumption and pollution, the trigger falls and whole ecosystems are negatively impacted.

Source: MSNBC & photo credit: Sami Keinänen

Related posts:

1. Caribou Herds Getting Smaller as a Result of Global Warming
2. Dont Stop the Drilling to Save the Polar Bears
3. Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Third-Lowest Level Recorded, 200 Walruses Dead