{"id":10572,"date":"2018-02-28T17:13:48","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T22:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=10572"},"modified":"2018-03-14T01:13:50","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T05:13:50","slug":"species-still-at-risk-lake-superior-woodland-caribou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/28\/species-still-at-risk-lake-superior-woodland-caribou\/","title":{"rendered":"Species Still at Risk – Lake Superior Woodland Caribou"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb 28, 2018 @ 17:13<\/b><\/p>\n

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photo courtesy of C. Schroeder. Cow Caribou at Michipicoten Island<\/em>.<\/p><\/div>\n

Extirpate – to destroy or remove (something) completely.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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It has been a story of frustration and dogged determination to save the Lake Superior Woodland Caribou on Michipicoten Island from extirpation. The Woodland Caribou that live on the shores of Lake Superior have been harder and harder to find. In fact, Woodland Caribou are considered a ‘species at risk’ with Ontario creating a Woodland Caribou Conservation Plan in 2009, nine years ago. Some very important statements were made in that Plan:<\/p>\n

\u201c4.1.4 The Lake Superior coastal population will be managed for population security and persistence. The focus will be to protect and manage habitat and encourage connectivity to caribou populations to the north.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c5.3 Ontario will review the feasibility of caribou translocations (i.e. the trapping and transferring of animals within Ontario) as a caribou recovery tool for very specific situations, including an assessment of risks and the development of criteria and guidelines, if appropriate. This review will examine lessons learned from past experience in Ontario and elsewhere as well as disease transmission and regulatory considerations. Translocations have been shown to be successful at establishing caribou populations in very specific situations, such as predator-free islands.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c5.5 Within the geographic distribution of caribou, populations of predators will be managed primarily by managing habitat and the associated roads to reflect natural forest conditions. This will include the management of land and resource uses to maintain naturally-occurring low densities of prey (e.g. Moose, White-tailed Deer) and predators. Ontario will assess the feasibility and effectiveness of directly and indirectly influencing predator densities in very specific situations, and develop criteria and guidelines for managing the prey-predator balance as required.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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Kutcha (2012) “Bottom-up and Top-down Forces Shaping Caribou Forage Availability on the Lake Superior Coast”<\/p><\/div>\n

With those public statements, it is very difficult to understand how the caribou on Michipicoten Island could be in the situation they are in today. From an estimated population of 680 in 2011 to perhaps 30 in December 0f 2017.<\/p>\n

The saga of the Woodland Caribou began with the realization that the Pukaskwa National Park caribou stocks showed a serious decline. Estimates ranged from 31 in 1979, to 9 in 2003 and extirpation not far away. To protect the species, from 1982 to 1989, Woodland Caribou Restoration Projects took place with Michipicoten, Montreal Island, Bowman Island\/St. Ignace Island, and Lake Superior Provincial Park were selected as new homes for caribou from the Slate Islands which were overpopulated with caribou.<\/p>\n

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In September of 1982, eight caribou were transplanted to Michipicoten Island, growing to 26 in 1988. 2001 the population was 160, and 2003 more than 200. In 2011, a study for Stillwater Canada Inc. estimated that there were 680 animals on Michipicoten Island. It is estimated that there were 997 animals in 2014.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In 1984, 10 were released on Montr\u00e9al Island, 14 were observed in 1988. In 1993, 16 caribou were seen, but then wolves reached the island in 1994, killing some and the others left the island.<\/p>\n

In October 1985, six caribou were brought to Bowman Island, where wolves and moose were present, but the transplant\u00a0failed due to predation (1986). By April 1986, 4 of 5 collared caribou perished within 6 months (Bergerud and Mercer 1989).\u00a0Bowman Island is adjacent to St. Ignace Island where caribou had persisted into the late 1940s.<\/p>\n

In the fall of 1989, 39 caribou were translocated from the Slate Islands to Lake Superior Provincial Park (<\/span>Gargantua Peninsula). By the following summer, all but 1 of the 17 radio-collared animals were either killed or died and were scavenged by wolves. Despite the high density of moose and wolves in Lake Superior P.P., the herd had persisted in the coastal zone near Cape Gargantua and Dixon Island for approximately 20 years. Three caribou were last observed in 2007 (Bergerud et al. 2007), but there has not been any evidence since and it appears this herd is extirpated.<\/span><\/p>\n

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photo courtesy of C. Schroeder. Caribou at Michipicoten Island.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The only successful story was the Woodland Caribou translocated to Michipicoten Island. The herd had grown to nearly 1,000 in 2014. The underlying thread for failure in the other populations was the predation by wolves.<\/p>\n

In addition to the losses of the other transplanted caribou, an aerial survey in 2015\/16 from\u00a020 km east of Nipigon to approximately half-way through Lake Superior Provincial Park didn’t record one caribou sighting. Only four groups of \u201ccaribou sign\u201d were reported, all recorded west of Neys Provincial Park.\u00a0This federal Access to Information Request revealed that even after seeing no caribou, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and Parks Canada reported that there were 55 caribou on the north shore of Lake Superior.<\/p>\n

The 30-year success of the Michipicoten herd wasn’t guaranteed though. Three, possibly four wolves came over in the winter of 2013\/14. In February\/March 2015, the MNR collared these wolves, established trail cams at the den and a study was well underway.<\/p>\n

Their objectives:<\/p>\n