Caribou comeback: Can the species ever return to N.B.? - Action News
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New Brunswick

Caribou comeback: Can the species ever return to N.B.?

The nearly century-old absence of the woodland caribou has had some hunting groups question whether the native animal could ever be reintroduced to New Brunswick.

Botanist doesn't hold out hope after overhunting and a parasite wiped out species

A photo taken in the early 1900's shows what is believed to be the last caribou shot in New Brunswick. The species would become regionally extinct shorty thereafter. (New Brunswick Provincial Archives)

When the leaves in the forestsof New Brunswick change their colours, it signals to thousands of hunters to head into the woods in search of this provinces "big three"moose, black bear, and whitetail deer.

But the nearlycenturyold absence of a fourth big game animal, the woodland caribou, has had some hunting groups question if the native animal could ever be reintroduced in the province.

"They were here, as far as we know, since the glaciers left," said Gerry Parker, aformer officer with theCanadianWildlife Service who studied caribou in the CanadianArctic. "They were here thousandsof years."

After a nearly 100-year absence some question if the woodland caribou could be reintroduced to New Brunswick. (CBC)
"But the caribou were overhunted, mainly for their antlers," said Parker, who has written several books on early hunting and forestry in N.B. "People loved to hunt for those antlers."

In the province's early days those highly prized racks drew hunters north by the trainload coming from Boston and New York.

"In the 1880s word got out to the Americans that there was big game to hunt north of the border," said Parker.

Game shows andmagazinespromoted caribou hunting to a growing middle class that, while not able to afford big game hunting in Africa, could afford aday'stravel to New Brunswick to trophy hunt caribou along with moose and bear.

Unregulated hunt

Gerry Parker, a former researcher with Canadian Wildlife Services, has studied caribou in the Canadian Arctic and since retiring has written several books about its early life in New Brunswick. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
A mappublishedin 1899 byNew York Field and Stream Publishing Co.carvedN.B. into a series of hunting grounds labelled as "Excellent Caribou Country, Excellent Caribou Ground, and Fair Moose & Caribou Ground."

Butunregulatedhunting would mark the decline ofthecaribou'sreign. A photo from the New Brunswick Provincial Archives is marked witha note that states"last caribou shot in NB." It shows hunterIssaacErdstanding over a large slain bull and is dated between 1906-1912.

A map printed in 1899 by the New York Field and Stream Publishing Co. for their hunting magazine of the same name shows areas north of Fredericton, east of Woodstock, and north of Miramichi as "excellent" caribou hunting territories. (NB Provincial Archives)

Following thatfinal woodland caribouharvesta complete ban was placed on hunting caribou in N.B.

But it would prove too little, too late. According to Parker's research the last wild caribou sighting recorded in the province would be in the early 1930s.

But despite thedevastingimpact of overhunting on caribou there was another,unassuming,culprit thatensured that caribou would never return to New Brunswick.

"In the early 1800s the lumbermen went into the woods of New Brunswick once, maybe twice over, opening up the forests," said Parker. "That created grazing for deer."

Lethal parasite

This photo from the New Brunswick Provincial Archives shows of hunter Isaac Erb with a woodland caribou. Erbs note with the photo simply said last caribou shot in NB. It is dated between 1906 and 1912. (New Brunswick Provincial Archives)
That coupled with thealmost fanatical slaughter of wolves in the province by farmers and hunter alikeallowed for whitetail deer to push north.Along with them came a deadly parasite that would prove lethal to the remaining caribou herd.

"There is pretty strong evidence that this is one of the factors that led to the precipitous decline of the caribou," said StephenClayden, a botanist at the New Brunswick museum. "A meningeal worm, it's a parasiticnematode, or commonly called abrain worm."

"It is carried by whitetail deer," saidClayden. "But is not lethal to themlike it is to caribou."

Claydenhas written about the decline cariboupopulationinan articlepublishedin2000titled "The Last New Brunswick Caribou?"

"There were some really interesting observations by a guide and outfitter by the name of Bert Moore," said Clayden. "He wrote about his observations from his perspective in the late 1920s about caribou and deer in north-central New Brunswick."

Overhunting of caribou during the late 1800s and early 1900s eventually pushed the species to the point where it could not recover in New Brunswick. (New Brunswick Provincial Archives)

"The last caribou he saw, in November 1928, was "walking in circles," wrote Clayden. "It was not until the early 1960s that this parasite, a tiny roundworm with the formidable name Parelaphostrongylus tenuis, was first shown to be the cause of "moose sickness." Further studies soon determined that its effects on caribou were similar to those in moose, but more severe and quick to develop."

"They can walk in circles for days," said Claydon. "If they get into water they can swim in circles until they drown."

"And there is strongcircumstantialevidence that it was the interactionbetweendeer and caribou that was one of the key factors that led to thedisappearanceof caribou from New Brunswick."

Herds of hundreds of woodland caribou used to thrive in New Brunswick. They have been regionally extinct since the early 1930s. (CBC)
But the decline of the whitetail deer innorthernN.B. has some questioning if that could provide thechance for a successfulreintroduction of the caribou in this provincedespitethe failed attempts in others.

For decades the deer season has been cancelled in most northern parts of the province, some since1993, due to extremly low deer numbers according to the Department of Energy, Mines, and Resource Development. Some zoneshave only had a season reinstated recently, albiet in a limited capacity.

Caribou comeback?

Reintroduction of caribou has worked, and failed, in other province. Quebec and Newfoundland and Labradorhave seen partial successin theirattemptsto bring back the species.But Nova Scotia failed in their attempt in 1960s.Maine has triedto bring back the cariboutwice, first in1963 andagainin1990,tono avail.

Stephen Clayden, a botanist at the New Brunswick Museum, says that a parasite brought by whitetail deer to New Brunswick and current forestry practices mean there is probably a slim chance that caribou could survive a reintroduction. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
But standing underneath several cariboumounts, displayed headsfrom hunts over acenturyagoatthe New Brunswickmuseumarchives,Claydendoubts that NewBrunswick's currentforestrypractices would allow for caribou to survive, let alonethrive in the province.

"We know that if we look at otherpopulationsthat they'refeedingin lichenrich habitats," saidClayden. "We still have some of those, such asareas with coastal bogs, likeMiscouIsland, that are rich in ground lichens that caribou would have feed on,foragingthem by digging down through the snow pack."

There are several caribou mounts in the New Brunswick Museum archives, trophies recovered from hunts that occurred over a century ago. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
"But in thesummerwe find they tend to feed on tree lichens," saidClayden. "What some people call 'OldMan'sBeard.'"

"But the changing nature of the forest, in large part through the conversion of older stand to younger age classes, there probably isn't the abundance of tree lichens that there would have been acenturyago."

This young female caribou, born in captivity at the Magnetic Hill Zoo in Moncton, is one of two caribou left in the New Brunswick. The other is her mother, also kept at the zoo. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
Today there are only two known caribou residing in the province; a juvenile female that was born in captivity at the Magnetic Hill Zoo in Moncton, along with her mother. Given the continued presence ofwhitetail deer coupled with current forestry practices Clayden believes captivity is most likely the onlyway for caribou to survive.

"It's conceivable I suppose that if there were no interaction between deer and caribou, if there was an experimental reintroduction maybe caribou could survive for awhile," saidClayden. "Butif we're thinking about a period of not just a few years, or even a few decades it seems to me the odds are probablyprettyslim."

A wiped out species might return to the province

7 years ago
Duration 3:39
The nearly century-old absence of the woodland caribou has had some hunting groups question whether the native animal could ever be reintroduced to New Brunswick.