http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/science/endangered-caribou-idaho-british-columbia.html 2016-10-03 13:38:36 America’s Gray Ghosts: The Disappearing Caribou A herd in the Selkirk Mountains near the Canadian border is down to about a dozen, threatened by wolves and a larger problem, development. === BONNERS FERRY, Idaho — The only caribou left here in northern Idaho number about a dozen and live deep in the forests of the jagged They may very soon become real ghosts: These animals are among the most endangered species in the continental United States. “Right now, predation is the biggest problem, primarily wolves and cougars,” said Norm Merz, a wildlife biologist with the Part of the problem is that the Selkirk herd is international. The caribou can be found in the snowy old-growth forests of Idaho and extreme northeast Washington, but spend about 90 percent of their time in southern Canada. The threat to the animals there is so serious that Canadian government sharpshooters Widespread wolf culls further north in Alberta are credited with saving the The Selkirk herd is not the only one so greatly imperiled. At last count, there were some 1,354 mountain caribou in 15 subgroups in southern British Columbia. Ten years ago, there were thousands. Today, all are in steep decline and listed as endangered in Canada, primarily because of wolves. Wolf predation, though, is a symptom of a much bigger and far more difficult problem. The fundamental cause of the caribou decline is the unanticipated ecological consequences of development. The steep mountain forests where the caribou dwell are part of an inland temperate rain forest, a unique ecosystem characterized by frequent precipitation and the only one inland. The centuries-old cedar and hemlock trees, and the For decades, the forest has been fragmented by clear-cutting, road building, oil development and mining. Where the forest has grown back, it is dominated by willows and other small trees favored by moose, deer and elk. In 2009, wolf numbers began surging in southern British Columbia, northern Idaho and northeastern Washington, drawn to the abundant prey. The population of mountain caribou dived, including the Selkirk herd, which then numbered about 50. Wolves focus primarily on moose and deer, but in the last two years, wolves have killed two caribou in the Selkirks; cougars killed another one. Yet another was killed by a car on Highway 3 in Canada, where salt on the road lures wildlife. Canadian government hunters have killed entire wolf packs in the caribou’s range to keep the species from extinction. Government experts and some environmentalists say the wolf populations can easily withstand such aggressive hunting; some research suggests the culling actually stimulates wolves to reproduce more. Drastic measures to protect the mountain caribou have also led to “maternity penning” — pregnant caribou are moved into a fenced enclosure that keeps predators out until the calves are old enough to fend for themselves and, hopefully, escape the wolves. There are many other caribou around the polar region, among them the famous herds of tundra caribou that thunder across the Arctic. But the caribou at risk in southern British Columbia and northern Idaho are the last known to climb the wintry peaks of the Rocky Mountains in search of dangling strands of lichen called Deep-snow caribou are burly, muscular Protection for the caribou is controversial in the United States partly because snowmobilers want to ride on the public lands that were to have been set aside for the endangered species. In 2012, the The But the Selkirk population is cut off from the hundreds of relatives farther north, primarily by roads, environmentalists say. Restrictions on snowmobile use and development in caribou habitat, they add, should be more rigorously enforced. “It seems to me the U.S. federal and state governments have written off caribou,” said Joe Scott, the director of international programs at As it stands, the Selkirk herd will not survive, and biologists say augmentation of the population is desperately needed. But with caribou in steep decline throughout their range, officials elsewhere don’t want to give up animals. And mountain caribou in the northern part of British Columbia simply don’t know how to travel to the high country to find lichen. When British Columbia caribou were exported to another endangered herd in the 1980s, 18 of the 19 animals died. Biologists who work with the “Wolves and grizzly bears suck up a lot of the money,” said Bart George, a biologist with the Kalispel tribe. “Where is the support for this charismatic species?”