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Caribou herds are so small in Jasper National Park that the animals are likely to die out here.
Parks Canada confirmed at their annual forum last Thursday that while our three southern caribou herds are keeping their numbers steady, there are not enough for them to repopulate.
Through DNA analysis and visual surveys, Parks has estimated that the Tonquin herd has 31 animals, and the Brazeau and Maligne herds have 10 or fewer.
Brazeau is “declining and functionally extirpated”, Maligne is “declining and possibly extirpated” and Tonquin is “declining and at extirpation threshold.”
David Argument, Jasper National Park’s resource conservation manager, said Jasper had a very healthy caribou population, with herds in the hundreds.
But we also used to have a much higher elk population, which attracted more wolves and other predators that have wiped out our caribou herds.
“They are now not sustainable and not able to climb out of the low number pit they are in,” Argument said. “They are likely to extirpate at this point.”
Caribou became extinct in Banff in 2009 when the last remnant herd was wiped out in an avalanche in the Molar Creek area north of Lake Louise.
Parks has been taking action to try to recover the caribou numbers in Jasper over the past few years, including delayed access to backcountry to reduce predation risk and extra speed signs on highways to reduce mortality risk.
But now the numbers are just too low.
Argument said Parks is looking at other measures like population augmentation - adding more caribou to the herds.
“We are looking closely at if captive breeding is the solution,” he said.
“It would be a major undertaking and hasn’t been done anywhere else - but we are making progress.”
We do have one larger and healthier herd of caribou that lives on both sides of the Jasper National Park’s north boundary, the A La Peche herd, with an estimated 140 animals.
