Where Have All the Caribou Gone?

As a mid-June sun slid behind a firtipped ridge in the boreal forest of Ontario, Canada, biologists John Fryxell of the University of Guelph and Jim Baker of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources were on a mission. They passed the blue waters of Lake Nipigon and skirted cliffs that could be the sheer rock faces of Yosemite before stopping at the railroad hamlet of Nakina. Nakina may be derived from a Cree word meaning “land covered with moss,” a clue to the scientists’ quarry. The “gray ghost,” or caribou, passes almost without a trace through the black spruce and jack pines of the Boreal, as the northern spruce–fir forest is colloquially known. Scientists have dedicated their professional lives to the animal, yet many have never glimpsed it on the ground. Where have all the caribou gone? To find out, Fryxell; Baker; and a team of researchers at Canada’s University of Guelph and Trent University, the Canadian Forest Service, and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources are conducting a four-year study of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in Ontario. Using what is known as a population viability analysis (PVA), the group hopes to determine what has happened to caribou and to learn how to better conserve the animals and their habitat.