Biologists working to ensure species survive
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
NNSL (Nov 01/99) - Despite the vast open spaces of the North, some of its mammals, birds and fish may soon be gone forever.
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Species at risk
Endangered (facing imminent extinction):
High Arctic Peary caribou
Threatened (likely to become endangered if limiting factors not reversed):
Wood Bison
Vulnerable (particularly sensitive to human activities or natural events):
Grizzly bear
Source: Environment Canada
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Five populations are facing imminent extinction, according to Environment Canada's count.
No species has come closer to extinction than the whooping crane. In 1942 there were only 21 whooping cranes left. Fifteen of them summered and bred in Wood Buffalo National Park. The other six, non-migratory birds living in Louisiana, subsequently died off.
"All the whooping cranes we have today came from those 15 birds," said Canadian Wildlife Service biologist Brian Johns.
Johns has studied whooping cranes, specifically those that nest in Wood Buffalo, for the past nine years.
The population has bounced back as a result of captive breeding programs and protective measures taken by the United States and Canadian governments.
"It's looked upon in Canada and the U.S. as a success story, though there's only 358 birds, which isn't a lot," said Johns. "It's kind of been a flagship species for endangered-species campaigns."
The Wood Buffalo population, which stands at 183 and has included at least 40 breeding pairs over the last five years, is particularly vulnerable. They winter at a refuge in south Texas, but a busy shipping canal cuts through the refuge.
Johns said any oil or chemical spill from the barges using the canal could have catastrophic effects on the population, which feeds on crabs and other small animals in tidal pools.
In an effort to avert the risk, attempts are now being made to establish a population that migrates between Wisconsin and Florida.
"Hopefully, if everything falls into place ... we'll be able to start testing the migration in 2001," said Johns.
Biologists are working with Bill Leishman, famed for his work with Canada geese, to use an ultralight aircraft to establish the route.
Caribou crisis
Also among the five species in the NWT and Nunavut rated endangered are two different populations of Peary caribou, one on Banks Island and the other in the Queen Elizabeth Islands of the High Arctic.
RWED caribou biologist, Anne Gunn, chairs the team assembling a recovery plan for the Peary caribou.
"At one level, what's happening is the development of a template or framework for people to work in," she explained, referring to the Accord for the Protection of Species at Risk, a national accord signed by each of the provinces and territories.
Under the accord each government agrees to carry out specific tasks to protect species in their jurisdiction that are at risk.
In the NWT, that requires local and regional aboriginal groups and researchers work together.
For the Peary caribou, that job falls to John Nagy, supervisor of wildlife management for the Inuvik region.
"There's a scientific perspective and a community perspective and meshing the two can take some work."
Nagy pointed out hunters have long recognized the peril the Peary are in. Hunters of Holman have not taken the Peary caribou, which winter near Minto Inlet, since 1990. In Sachs Harbour, the quota for Peary is 36 males, but hunters there have never met the quota, said Nagy.
Before co-management agreements providing for monitoring and sustainable harvesting levels can be developed a more accurate estimate of populations needs to be established, Nagy said.
The counting includes the wolf populations that prey on caribou and those, such as muskox, that compete with caribou for grazing space.
The weather has been the most serious threat to Peary caribou in recent years. Increased snowfall has required the caribou to work harder to get to food in winter. Nagy said any management plan developed will need to have a holistic approach, where things like harvesting quotas are linked to other population influences such as weather.
"We have to make sure the harvest management regime responds to that."
