Mountian Caribou

Saw this pretty cool looking video on mountain caribou. Really shows the diverse management issues that our federal lands are dealing with. https://vimeo.com/210812190

Yeah those caribou are an interesting subject. My dad has worked with the bios on the WA/ID side and they hardly do any cutting in that country anymore so the old growth forest is still plenty there. That is the severe southern range of the caribou so they were not really an established species. Perhaps they did well when the wolves and grizz were gone but now they are back so the caribou are not doing so well. Either way, even if the caribou get back to sustainable numbers, what does that mean? We will never hunt them so decent numbers just means maybe you will see one, maybe not. I would rather have the G&F work on mule deer in that area instead of a few ghosts that may or may not stay around regardless of man. Just my thoughts having spent quite a bit of time up there, but the WDFW is hopeless when it comes to wildlife.

I have read that the caribou ranged as far south as Elk City Idaho in small numbers. The US population was estimated at around 30 in the 80s. Any remaining old growth cutting in the area is occurring in B C, making it more of an international management issue.

Nice video footage in the film, and will definitely make some people aware of a species that they didn't even know existed. Knowledge is a good thing......thanks for posting.

Meateater did a podcast with one of the tribal biologists working on Caribou. I think it was last spring or so.

Article from Spokesman last spring that provides some background on the Selkirk Caribou herd.

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/outd...survey-finds-11-endangered-animals-remaining/