Woodland Caribou

 

Woodland caribou, tundra caribou, and reindeer are all the same species, but there are distinct physical and behavioral differences. Historically woodland caribou inhabited much of northern Minnesota and were the most abundant big game animal in, at least, northeast Minnesota. Their abundance decreased rapidly with logging and settlement of the northern forest. Logging converted the mature forest to young deciduous trees and shrubs which allowed moose to increase in abundance and white-tailed deer to become established.

The increased prey available allowed wolves to increase and the deer brought the brain worm parasite with them. The influx of people resulted in unrestricted shooting of caribou for food. This was long before the days of modern wildlife management and hunting regulations. By the 1920’s there were very few left in northeast Minnesota. The northwest Minnesota caribou died out in the 1940’s. An effort to restock them was unsuccessful.

Caribou have a very low reproductive rate and their populations can withstand very little mortality whether by man, predator, or parasite. Moose typically produce their first calf on their second birthday and often have twins in succeeding years. Caribou typically produce their first calf on their third birthday and rarely have more than one calf per year for the rest of their lives.

Photo of woodland caribou taken by Bill Peterson March 2, 1981 — Cook County Photo courtesy of Bill Peterson

Their primary survival tactic is to be able to live in small bands and in areas with such low-quality food that no other big game animal can survive, such as in areas with big bogs with small upland areas. In such areas predators are at extremely low levels. Caribou reproductive rate is much higher when they eat higher quality foods, but then other big game animals are also present and the wolf population is also higher. Caribou do very well and can multiply rapidly on wolf-free islands.

In 1976, the Minnesota Chapter of Safari Club International approached Minnesota D.N.R. with the idea of funding a woodland caribou reintroduction. They emphasized that there aim was to restore an extirpated native species, not to establish another species of game to hunt. They funded a considerable amount of investigation by D.N.R. to locate and evaluate potential release sites. Little Saganaga Lake in Cook County was identified as a suitable site. The project would have involved livetrapped caribou being bred and the young raised (but not tamed) until a small herd of adults and young could be released. It would have involved more funding than could be justified at the time, but some of Canada’s foremost caribou experts endorsed the plan and the proposed release site.

In the fall of 1980, Harry Drabik reported having seen a caribou southwest of Hovland. Later, Dave Mech (the wolf biologist) observed two caribou from the air in the area Harry had identified. I visited the area several times hoping to see one; usually all I saw were tracks and craters they had dug in the snow to feed on lichens. Eventually I did get to see and photograph one (a female) on two different days (see photo). At first, she was quite concerned about me, but soon calmed down and accepted me being there as long as I stayed about 20 yards away.

On April 18, 1981, a caribou was reported as having been seen along a road a few miles from the area. It did not have antlers, but was said to have a swollen udder. That spring Rick Fields found one of the antlers of the caribou I had photographed. He was quite excited.

I was told that during the winter of 1980-1981 a fellow living a few miles inland from the area had about a dozen caribou walk through his yard every day. A friend had seen the photos of them and thought I had known of these caribou too, so he did not bother mentioning them to me until the late 1990’s. By then, the fellow had moved away and the name had been forgotten. There was no way I could verify the report.

In a recent column, I mentioned that the State of Maine had attempted to establish a caribou herd on an island off their coast, but that deer had gotten to the island and the caribou died from brain worm.

The Selkirk Mountains in northern Idaho contained the last remaining native population of woodland caribou in the United States. The population had been decreasing for decades and in 2018 it had dwindled to three lone cows and no bulls. It is now functionally extinct.

In Ontario, woodland caribou persisted along the north-central and northeast shores of Lake Superior and on wolf-free offshore islands, such as the Slate Islands, for most of the 20th century. When wolves got to the Slate Islands, they increased rapidly and the caribou population crashed. In the 1980’s the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources moved some of the remaining caribou to a number of other islands. The caribou did very well until wolves reached those islands too and those populations crashed. In the meantime, the wolves had either died out or left the Slate Islands so caribou were reintroduced there too.

Ontario is now debating if it is worth any additional effort to keep caribou in the Lake Superior area. Wolves keep getting to the islands with caribou and there is great disapproval by the public to kill wolves, even to save caribou.

North of Lake Superior is Lake Nipigon which has many islands. The largest island has resident moose and wolf populations, but quite a few caribou summer on the smaller islands (only a few per island). They then migrate to the mainland and disperse among the many swamps and bogs for the winter, then walk back to the islands on the ice for the summer. There was a very nice upland wintering area next to the town of Armstrong that usually wintered a few dozen caribou. They suffered little predation because whenever a wolf pack came through, the caribou ran out onto the local airstrip and the wolves did not dare to follow.

Dale and I went there a few times in the spring to enjoy that interesting area. We have not been there for about 25 years, but that year we found that the timber across the road had been clear-cut and the caribou no longer wintered there.

They are a magnificent animal, but they are in great trouble.