National Wildlife Week is April 10 to 16 this year.\u00a0 The purpose of the week is to draw attention to wildlife conservation issues.\u00a0 This article is about the conservation and restoration of the Lake Superior caribou.\u00a0 These caribou are one of several isolated pockets of woodland caribou along the southern edge of their range in Canada that are in immediate danger of being lost.<\/p>\n
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The Lake Superior Caribou<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Deep History<\/u><\/em> –\u00a0\u00a0 Woodland caribou spent the last glaciation in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States.\u00a0 As the ice receded, the caribou spread through the forest all along the south edge of the ice.\u00a0 Caribou returned to the Lake Superior area about the same time people arrived. \u00a0So for about the next 10,000 years caribou provided for and co-existed with the people in this area.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n European Settlement<\/u><\/em> – \u00a0\u00a0Things began to change about 200 years ago with European settlement.\u00a0 \u00a0More caribou were shot to feed an increasing population.\u00a0 Caribou habitat was also lost to agriculture, settlements, railroads, roads, pipelines, electrical transmission corridors, and mines.\u00a0 The largest habitat loss was from logging which focused on old conifer forests, often with tree and ground lichens that are the classic winter food of caribou.\u00a0 These old conifer forests were replaced by young forests with a higher component of deciduous shrubs favoured by moose.\u00a0 The increase in moose in these regenerating forests resulted in an increase in wolves.\u00a0 The smaller and sparser caribou were simply unable to withstand this increase in predation \u2013 and they steadily declined.\u00a0 By 1980 caribou were gone from the south, west, and east shores of Lake Superior and almost all the off shore islands.\u00a0 There were only scattered caribou on the mainland along the northeast part of the lake, and they were isolated from the main caribou range to the north.\u00a0 Of the islands in Lake Superior, which all had caribou at one time, they remained only on the Slate Islands south of Terrace Bay.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n First Restorations<\/u><\/em> –\u00a0\u00a0 In the early 1900s, 6 caribou were moved from Newfoundland to Caribou Island to restore the population there.\u00a0 In the 1980s, caribou from the Slate Islands were moved to Michipicoten Island and to the off-shore islands and mainland of Lake Superior Provincial Park on the east side of the lake.\u00a0 These populations persisted from 10 to about 40 years.\u00a0\u00a0 They could have persisted longer but additional efforts were not made to supplement them or protect them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Near Extirpation<\/u><\/em> –\u00a0 \u00a0In the winter of 2014 wolves found their way on the ice to both the Slate Islands and Michipicoten Island.\u00a0 By 2017 they had eliminated almost all the caribou from the Slate Islands.\u00a0 Only two adult males were thought to have survived.\u00a0 This is called functional extirpation because the population cannot rebuild from one sex.\u00a0 In 2018 the wolves completely extirpated the caribou from Michipicoten Island.\u00a0 However, a few caribou were rescued at the last minute.\u00a0 By 2014 there were only a very few caribou left on the north shore of Lake Superior.\u00a0\u00a0 In total there were probably about 1100 Lake Superior caribou in 2014 \u2013 mostly on Michipicoten Island.\u00a0 By 2018 there were probably less than 30.\u00a0 This catastrophic decline is one of the characteristics of island biogeography.\u00a0 Relatively small islands like the Slates and Michipicoten are simply not large enough for caribou to space out and evade predation by wolves.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rescue<\/u><\/em> –\u00a0\u00a0 In the winter of 2018, 9 caribou (8 adult females and 1 adult male) were moved from Michipicoten Island back to the Slate Islands.\u00a0 They joined the 2 remaining adult males there to hopefully restore that population.\u00a0 Just after that, 6 caribou (4 adult females and 2 adult males) were moved from Michipicoten Island to Caribou Island.\u00a0 They were among the last of the caribou on Michipicoten Island and were intended to form a secure backup population of the Lake Superior caribou that could not be reached by wolves.\u00a0 These are very small founding populations, especially the male component , so inbreeding problems are a worry.\u00a0 However, these last caribou from Michipicoten are also the survivors of an extreme predation event and are therefore likely very fit \u2013 both physically and genetically.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Present Status<\/u><\/em> –\u00a0\u00a0 There are now likely in the mid-30s of caribou on the Slate Islands and about 20 caribou on Caribou Island.\u00a0 The last few aerial surveys of the north shore of Lake Superior have not turned up any caribou.\u00a0 So, after persisting for 10,000 years, they are now likely gone from the mainland along Lake Superior.\u00a0 Although the caribou populations are growing in the two restored island locations, they are not out of danger.\u00a0 The Slate Islands are very susceptible to re-invasion by wolves when ice bridges form to the mainland.\u00a0 Caribou Island is small and very susceptible to over-population and subsequent starvation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Near Future<\/u><\/em> –\u00a0\u00a0 Plans are in the works to restore caribou to Michipicoten Island.\u00a0 The island just needs to be free of wolves before caribou can be moved back, and there may still be two wolves there. \u00a0Biigtigong and Michipicoten First Nations are also interested in restoring caribou to the mainland along Lake Superior in their traditional areas.\u00a0 This would include Pukaskwa National Park and the Conservation Reserve between Pukaskwa and Wawa.\u00a0 Prospects for these mainland restorations are good.\u00a0 Ecosystem conditions are thought to be better now than when the caribou disappeared from these areas.\u00a0 Pukaskwa National Park has stopped their prescribed burning program in a zone 10 km back from the shore, so habitat should be getting better for caribou rather than moose.\u00a0\u00a0 Aerial surveys in the park also show moose numbers at a level where caribou should be able to co-exist with predator numbers.\u00a0\u00a0 However, periodic supplementations of the caribou may be necessary until ecosystem conditions return to being completely self-sustaining for caribou.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prognosis<\/u><\/em> –\u00a0\u00a0 Getting caribou back to Michipicoten Island and restoring a viable caribou population on the mainland will greatly increase the security of the Lake Superior caribou.\u00a0 This will reverse the continent wide trend of caribou population decline and range recession in at least this small part of Ontario.\u00a0 It will also begin restoring a species that helped the Indigenous people survive here for thousands of years and that they wish to return the favour to.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What can I do<\/u><\/em>? –\u00a0 \u00a0You can write Minister David Puccini of the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks at minister.mecp@ontario.ca<\/a> .\u00a0\u00a0 Ask him to help restore the Lake Superior caribou to Michipicoten Island and their recent range on the mainland.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n