They are beautiful, but slightly goofy looking with heavy antlers. They are the only animal where both the male and female have antlers. They belong to the deer family, with short swift-moving tails and large hooves specially adapted for trotting across the snow. They eat lichen, which no one else wants. They live in high alpine areas and are usually not prey for grizzlies.

With all those unique adaptations, the Southern Mountain Woodland Caribou is still creeping closer to extinction in Jasper National Park, with only about 100 left.

On August 27 concerned Jasperites gathered for a night of poetry, film and musical tributes to the caribou at the Legion. 

Caribou Got The Blues started out with wildlife biologists Mark Bradley and Layla Neufeld presenting information about the decline of caribou populations in Alberta’s national parks. Caribou Got The Blues continued with a spoken word tribute by Paulette Dube with never-before-seen footage of caribou in the Tonquin Valley that was filmed in mid-July displayed behind her, and music by blues guitarist Ellen McIlwaine. The event kicked off the Wildlife Festival that was held on Friday and Saturday. 

“Caribou don’t like predation. They don’t like getting eaten,” Bradley joked, but the statement is true – caribou do everything they can to stay away from wolves, their main predator. Those specially adapted hooves act as snowshoes to keep them above the snow, which wolves cannot do. This provides the caribou with a getaway plan should they encounter a wolf. 

But with national parks becoming more and more developed, wolves now can use roads and hiking trails to hunt, providing them with an unfair advantage. 

The ideal habitat for caribou is older conifer forests where they can graze for lichen, a type of moss that no other animal in the Rockies will touch – another small advantage. It takes one tree about 40 or more years to feed one caribou lichen for a year.

Bradley said the world is changing to support elk and deer habitat, adding that doubling the caribou population in Jasper National Park would be ideal. 

Neufeld said the caribou population use to be plentiful in Jasper National Park around the 1900s, before the town was established. Then there were few moose or elk and the caribou population is estimated to have been about 500 to 600. They were numerous and healthy, with all the right advantages over the few wolves that roamed the area. 

Between 1920 and 1960 elk were reintroduced to the area. They grew quickly and resulted in Parks Canada initiating a cull to trim down the population. Wolves were also controlled to give the elk a chance, Neufeld told the crowd.

From 1960 to 1973 Parks stopped the population control of wolves but continued to cull elk. This is the period when caribou began to decline. 

While it is easy to blame the wolves for the extinction of caribou, Canada added another threat to the caribou. The Icefields Parkway was pushed through by 1940, and the introduction of vehicles began killing caribou, Neufeld said. 

From 1973 to now wolves have rebounded in the park, and cars have continued to kill off caribou. Parks Canada monitors and tracks the caribou population using radio collars and DNA research from caribou scat.

The establishment of Jasper gave elk an advantage. It allowed them a sanctuary to escape predators, but Neufeld said it is important for them to interact with their predators. Human disturbance has added to the caribou’s burden, and Bradley suggests slowing down on the parkway. 

One issue that Jasper does not have – yet – that could contribute to the extinction of caribou is habitat loss. Biologists work with Parks Canada when they do prescribed burns to ensure no conifer forests are effected. 

The final issue facing caribou is the size of their herd. Bradley said there is a certain size needed to maintain a healthy herd. The situation in Jasper isn’t as bad as in other parks, however. The caribou population in the Banff National Park took a major hit last year, when it’s believed a massive avalanche killed the five remaining animals.