Bye-bye, Rudolph: Reindeer in Decline

Reindeer populations in Arctic regions around the world are in sharp decline, threatened by land development, logging and climate change. Arctic people in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and other areas depend upon these animals as both a food source and an important part of their spirituality.

Reindeer, known as caribou in North America, have decreased by an average of 60 percent overall, but in some cases the dips in numbers have been far more extreme.

From MSNBC:

“I want to emphasize the negative effects this will have on Arctic people who rely on caribou for sustenance,” said Liv Vors, a population ecologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. “If the situation continues at the rate it’s going, it will have profoundly negative economic, social and spiritual consequences.”

The researchers looked through government archives, previously published studies, wildlife management boards, and other sources to consolidate everything that was known about the animals and their population sizes over the last several decades. They ended up gathering data on about 58 major herds.

Of those 58, they reported in the journal Global Change Biology, 34 were in decline, eight were gradually increasing, and 16 were lacking enough data to tell for sure.

Among the herds that were suffering, the average dip was 57 percent since the most recent peak. Some populations were much harder hit. A herd in Labrador, north of Quebec, for example, had dropped from 750 animals to fewer than 100. In the Canadian High Arctic, a herd that was 50,000 animals strong 50 or 60 years ago now numbers fewer than 1,000.

Caribou are one of the last remaining species on earth that have retained their ancient migration routes, but that is threatened now as land is developed further north. Not all subspecies of caribou migrate, but even the ones that don’t need plenty of space and logging has seriously decreased the amount of forest they have to call home. Global warming has also caused an explosion in mosquito populations, and has brought whitetail deer bearing a parasitic disease into caribou territory.

How sad to think that one day way too soon, reindeer in children’s storybooks may seem just as mythological as Santa Claus.

Link [MSNBC]
Photo credit: LA Times Blog

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