- Bad news as of 22 January 2019. -
A relict species of megafauna has barely held on to existence in the
inland temperate rainforest of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. The
“mountain caribou” or “southern mountain caribou” was the last native
reindeer to live in the Lower 48 of the United States right up until
this winter.
By the end of 2018, there were only 3 mountain
caribou left in a small population known by biologists and land managers
as the “South Selkirks herd.” This herd lived along the Canada-US
border between Sandpoint (Idaho) and Nelson (British Columbia). As of
January 2019, they have been taken into captivity preceding relocation
farther north in British Columbia.
Here are a couple of individuals that were once a part of the South Selkirks herd (source):
Here’s a big male from a separate herd of mountain caribou located farther north near Prince George, British Columbia
(source):
Another view of the South Selkirk herd being monitored by biologists (source) :
Here’s a distribution map for caribou in North America (base layer source from BC government; labels by me):
Here’s the historic distribution range of the southern mountain caribou before its extinction in the US, and a view of how closely the animal relies on temeprate rainforest (original map
source 1; and
source
2):
Here’s a closer look at where the South Selkirks herd lived:
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The southern mountain caribou is dependent on the fertile cedar-hemlock forest of the inland temperate rainforest, where they eat hanging mosses and lichens. As of January 2019, they have all been taken into captivity and will be relocated farther north in more reliable habitat in eastern British Columbia.
This is a “victory” for wealthy private property owners in the Spokane metro area, and for Idaho’s state legislature, who have been actively working against caribou for decades in order to strip regulations and gain access to outdoor recreation paths and potential resort sites in the Selkirk Mountains.
(I’ve written more extensively about southern mountain caribou - and the local social and political challenges to caribou - here.)
So, yea, one more megafauna species has gone extinct in the United States.
UPDATE
Here are some views of the very last United States-dwelling individual caribou being sedated and transplanted.
The cow - from the South Selkirks herd - was found hanging-out near Creston, British Columbia. She was sedated by British Columbia biologists on Tuesday, 15 January 2019.
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Here’s the cow waking-up outside of her new home near Revelstroke, in a region of the inland rainforest that is farther north, wetter, and much more mountainous and rugged than the Selkirks near the US border. The other two caribou are also southern mountain caribou that have been relocated, but they are instead transplants from the South Purcell herd which lives along the US border near Yaak (Montana) and Cranbrook (BC), adjacent to the original location of the South Selkirks herd.
(Source.)
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Activists and biologists from the Kalispel tribe have reported their disappointment with the disappearance of the last caribou from the Selkirk Mountains. Here’s an excerpt from a Spokesman-Review article, 18 January 2019:
“You know it’s sad. We’re still in mourning over the whole
situation,” said Bart George, a wildlife biologist for the Kalispel
Tribe of Indians. “The Selkirks lost some of their magic.”
One of the animals’ few allies in the United States was the Kalispel Tribe. In 2017, the tribe helped organize a maternal pen project aimed at capturing pregnant cows and letting them calve in the security of a 19-acre enclosure. The tribe raised roughly $225,000 toward that effort, but the caribou population declined before they could implement anything. Then in November, Canadian officials announced their plans to move the surviving members of the South Selkirk herd farther north.
George said the Kalispel Tribe will remain involved in caribou recovery, although he’s not sure exactly in what capacity.
Canadian officials plan to implement a captive breeding project somewhere in British Columbia, with plans to eventually release caribou back into the Selkirk and Purcell ranges, Degroot said. George hopes the project is based in the Selkirks so tribal involvement is easier.