Nearly All of the Northwest Territories' Half-Million Caribou Are Now Dead

Once a half-million strong, a Canadian herd of caribou is teetering on the edge of extinction.

The Bathurst herd of caribou has experienced such an extreme population decline over the past three decades that the Northwest Territories government has been forced to ban hunting of the animals for the second consecutive year, according to Arctic Deeply. That may not be enough to save the herd, however, as the population has plummeted from 470,000 in 1986 to as few as 16,000 just a year ago.

Since 2012, the herd's population of breeding females has dropped 50 percent since 2012, leaving just 8,000 in the declining group, the study also found. The local government has been left with no choice but to ban hunting for a second year in a row, but that leaves local residents without a major food source upon which they've relied for decades, Arctic Deeply also reported.

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Now, local leaders must develop a long-term plan that will keep this species alive, even in a warming world. In a recent meeting between tribal leaders and elected officials, an agreement was drafted that recommends banning the caribou hunt through mid-2018, when the next survey on the Bathurst herd will be performed.

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While it's known that these species can go through periods of rapid decline or a boom in population, experts are worried that this time is different because there are more factors – climate change, for one – at play.

“It’s climate change, it’s resource extraction, it’s winter roads, it’s commercial and subsistence hunting,” Anne Gunn, a wildlife biologist who studies Canada's caribou herds, told Arctic Deeply.

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