Caribou breeding program aims to boost dwindling herd numbers in Alberta | 24CA News

A brand new $24 million matchmaking program is aiming to assist rebuild caribou populations in Jasper National Park which are too small to recuperate on their very own. 

The federal authorities introduced Tuesday that its beforehand introduced proposal to hold out a first-of-its-kind caribou conservation breeding program goes forward. 

“We’ve determined through that work over the last few years that using conservation breeding is the only tool available to Parks Canada and Jasper National Park to be able to recover these small herds,” stated Jean-Francois Bisaillon, program supervisor for the Caribou Recovery Program in Jasper, on Tuesday.

Parks Canada plans to seize females — together with a small roster of bulls — and breed them in captivity. 

The hope is that every rutting season, nature will take its course inside the ability’s breeding pens — albeit with some human intervention.

“We would release the offspring every year in the herd or a population that we intend to increase or recover over time and then we repeat that over a number of years until we meet our recovery objectives essentially,” Bisaillon defined.

Caribou are what Bisaillon calls “an umbrella species,” that means by defending caribou, different species in the identical ecosystem additionally profit corresponding to grizzly bears and wolverines. 

The mission will completely pen as much as 40 females and 5 males in a one-square-kilometre facility surrounded by an electrical fence.

Construction close to Athabasca Falls, about 30 kilometres south of Jasper, will start this spring. The first calves are anticipated to be born within the spring of 2025 and launched into the Tonquin and Brazeau herds the next 12 months. 

‘History of mismanagement’

Carolyn Campbell, conservation director with the Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) stated the caribou inhabitants has suffered from “a history of mismanagement,” which Parks Canada began to right within the early 2000s.

“They’ve refocused populations of wolves that were putting too much predation pressure on Caribou,” Campbell defined. 

“They’ve taken a lot of steps to reduce access pressures by humans and winter snowpack threats by people that enabled wolves to get into where the Caribou were.”

Campbell stated she understands the program is a crucial measure to save lots of the species, however she referred to as the state of affairs “tragic.”

Parks Canada has taken steps to assist caribou populations, corresponding to proscribing public entry to winter grazing grounds. Those adjustments got here too late, Campbell stated. 

“It’s tragic because it never should have come to this in a national park.”

Parks Canada additionally stated it labored with Indigenous communities within the space to seek the advice of on the mission. Campbell stated she strongly helps that a part of the technique .

“They have knowledge since time immemorial about Caribou and have been excluded from many important Parks Canada decisions,” Campbell stated. 

It’s hoped the captive breeding program will produce round 20 calves a 12 months — sufficient to deliver the herds to sustainable ranges inside a decade.