Page 26 - October 28, 2019
P. 26
THE WEEKLY ANCHOR
THE WEEKLY ANCHOR
PAGE 26 MONDAY OCTOBER 28, 2019 MONDAY JULY 4, 2016 PAGE 2
Edson Library hosts talk on threatened
Woodland Caribou and conservation efforts
by Cassie Kushniruk
Since the 1900s, Woodland Caribou have seen
a continued population decline, so much so that
the species was declared 'Threatened' by
COSEWIC in 2000. Although there have been
various conservation efforts since then, range-
wide declines have continued.
Certified Wildlife Biologist Bob Stewart visited
the Edson Public Library on October 22 to
provide residents with an understanding of the
60+ years of scientific research and management
on Woodland Caribou in Canada, as well as
current conservation efforts.
Stewart has spent 72 years in the wildlife
biology field, where he studied bears and
muskoxen in the Northwest Territories, became a
moose research biologist in Saskatchewan,
worked with the Miskito people in Nicaragua,
and is currently spending his time as a research
biologist to address the Woodland Caribou
decline.
Before explaining the extensive history of
Woodland Caribou in Canada, Stewart described
the theory of Apparent Competition, that of Certified Wildlife Biologist Bob Stewart visited the Edson Public Library on October 22 to educate
which “dominates the management of caribou residents about the 60+ years of scientific research on Woodland Caribou and conservation efforts.
resources in Western Canada today”. “Apparent Pictured is Stewart holding a caribou calf decoy equipped with electrified wires he created as part of an
Competition says that if I chop down the forest experiment to teach bears not to touch caribou calves. photo Cassie Kushniruk
and create young vegetation, I get more moose,”
he said. “If I have more moose, I'm going to have …they went back to the pen to get food, and manage bears, one must learn how to teach bears,
more wolves that are going to take advantage of bears and wolves were waiting for them.” which ultimately led to a couple of his own
that resource. If I have more wolves, then I have An experiment that was more successful in experiments. “For my approach, I went out and
less caribou because the wolves are going to kill combating this issue was wolf fertility control, in spent a lot of my own money to teach bears that
the caribou.” which the alpha male and female of a pack were caribou calves are not something to eat,” he said.
Stewart noted that a majority of research sterilized so that they could no longer reproduce. In one experiment conducted in 2016/2017,
conducted in the preservation of caribou “The wolf population went down,” Stewart said. Stewart stuffed caribou meat with Carolina
populations has been focused primarily on wolf “However, it's prohibitively expensive to actually reaper peppers and fed it to bears.
predation, dating back to 1950 when the first carry on these operations.” “Unfortunately, they didn't have to chew it,” he
research was conducted in Newfoundland by A large effort expended to combat caribou said.“They just swallowed it and showed no
biologist Arthur Bergerud. population decrease was wolf culling, which still response.”
Bergerud later conducted further studies in occurs to this day. “The first work that was done For another experiment, Stewart created a
northern B.C., discovering that 90% of caribou was in migratory mountain caribou populations caribou calf decoy equipped with wires
calves died before they reached one month of in the Yukon,” said Stewart. “It had some conducting 10,000 volts of electricity to teach
age.“He blamed it on wolves,” Stewart said. “At success… but wolves can breed way too fast. bears to not touch caribou calves. After receiving
the end of [the Little Ice Age], he said that moose What you do is you break up the wolf packs and a permit from the Government of Manitoba to
came out of the Northwest Territories and you end up with multiple breeding males and test his decoy, he watched bears get zapped by
migrated into British Columbia and started females and the wolf populations explode in the the decoy and never come back.
occupying mountain ranges where they did not next year.” “To do this effectively, it would cost maybe a
formally occur, and with them came wolves.” Although people are now beginning to say that couple hundred thousand dollars at most a year,”
Stewart noted that a very important the decrease of caribou populations is due to Stewart said. “That's nothing compared to
commonality between every study conducted on climate change, Stewart refuted that there is not billions of other experiments and you're not
every caribou population in Canada revolved enough scientific evidence on climate change to killing anything if you leave nature alone.”
around calf mortality. “80% of the calves die in support this theory. “Maybe there's a part of it Stewart hopes to continue this research in future
the first four weeks of their life,” Stewart said. that's climate change, but you cannot escape your years.
“They only have one calf. They did not depend responsibility by shoving it off and saying its Unfortunately, only a couple residents attended
on their reproductive capability for their success climate change.” Stewart's presentation in Edson, but Stewart's
in nature; they depended on their ability to To successfully combat the caribou issue, passion for this issue remains and he plans to
isolate themselves away from predators.” Stewart believes that the decision needs to be travel across Alberta to educate residents on the
In the 1970/80s, there was a large interest inclusive of all people, non-lethal, minimally importance of caribou restoration.
emerging in the role bears play as predators of invasive of nature and above all, affordable. For more information on Stewart and his
babies of ungulates, primarily caribou. For 35 years, Stewart has believed that to conservation work, visit teams-ltd.com.
Through the use of radio collars on bears, one
caribou biologist discovered that in the
springtime, one third of bears travelled to
swamps where caribous were having their calves.
“He speculated that one third of all bears in
similar areas in Alberta were possibly involved
in killing caribou calves,” Stewart said.
Scientific work conducted in Alaska discovered
that bears were responsible for killing caribou
calves at a high rate. “The average kill per bear
was 34 calves in 4-5 weeks,” said Stewart.
In response to the caribou decline, there has
been various conservation efforts conducted over
the years to increase the caribou population,
many of which have failed due to a variety of
factors.
In 2006, an idea to create maternity pens
evolved. In this experiment, caribou were
confined within a fence to give birth to their
calves, and once that calf reached a certain age A huge thank you to Robert Pettersen, Jeff Miko, and Tessa Agrey from Secure Energy and Daryl
they would be released back into the wild. “But Parkhurst from Cardium Vac for braving the weather to help the students and staff at Vanier Community
once a caribou spends part of its life inside a Catholic School raise money towards cancer research during their Terry Fox Run on Friday, September
fence being fed by humans, it is no longer a wild 27. Thanks to their generous donation of time and delicious barbecued hamburgers, Vanier was able to
caribou,” Stewart said. “And low and behold raise $1500 for the Terry Fox Foundation. submitted Vanier School
photo submitted
THE WEEKLY ANCHOR
PAGE 26 MONDAY OCTOBER 28, 2019 MONDAY JULY 4, 2016 PAGE 2
Edson Library hosts talk on threatened
Woodland Caribou and conservation efforts
by Cassie Kushniruk
Since the 1900s, Woodland Caribou have seen
a continued population decline, so much so that
the species was declared 'Threatened' by
COSEWIC in 2000. Although there have been
various conservation efforts since then, range-
wide declines have continued.
Certified Wildlife Biologist Bob Stewart visited
the Edson Public Library on October 22 to
provide residents with an understanding of the
60+ years of scientific research and management
on Woodland Caribou in Canada, as well as
current conservation efforts.
Stewart has spent 72 years in the wildlife
biology field, where he studied bears and
muskoxen in the Northwest Territories, became a
moose research biologist in Saskatchewan,
worked with the Miskito people in Nicaragua,
and is currently spending his time as a research
biologist to address the Woodland Caribou
decline.
Before explaining the extensive history of
Woodland Caribou in Canada, Stewart described
the theory of Apparent Competition, that of Certified Wildlife Biologist Bob Stewart visited the Edson Public Library on October 22 to educate
which “dominates the management of caribou residents about the 60+ years of scientific research on Woodland Caribou and conservation efforts.
resources in Western Canada today”. “Apparent Pictured is Stewart holding a caribou calf decoy equipped with electrified wires he created as part of an
Competition says that if I chop down the forest experiment to teach bears not to touch caribou calves. photo Cassie Kushniruk
and create young vegetation, I get more moose,”
he said. “If I have more moose, I'm going to have …they went back to the pen to get food, and manage bears, one must learn how to teach bears,
more wolves that are going to take advantage of bears and wolves were waiting for them.” which ultimately led to a couple of his own
that resource. If I have more wolves, then I have An experiment that was more successful in experiments. “For my approach, I went out and
less caribou because the wolves are going to kill combating this issue was wolf fertility control, in spent a lot of my own money to teach bears that
the caribou.” which the alpha male and female of a pack were caribou calves are not something to eat,” he said.
Stewart noted that a majority of research sterilized so that they could no longer reproduce. In one experiment conducted in 2016/2017,
conducted in the preservation of caribou “The wolf population went down,” Stewart said. Stewart stuffed caribou meat with Carolina
populations has been focused primarily on wolf “However, it's prohibitively expensive to actually reaper peppers and fed it to bears.
predation, dating back to 1950 when the first carry on these operations.” “Unfortunately, they didn't have to chew it,” he
research was conducted in Newfoundland by A large effort expended to combat caribou said.“They just swallowed it and showed no
biologist Arthur Bergerud. population decrease was wolf culling, which still response.”
Bergerud later conducted further studies in occurs to this day. “The first work that was done For another experiment, Stewart created a
northern B.C., discovering that 90% of caribou was in migratory mountain caribou populations caribou calf decoy equipped with wires
calves died before they reached one month of in the Yukon,” said Stewart. “It had some conducting 10,000 volts of electricity to teach
age.“He blamed it on wolves,” Stewart said. “At success… but wolves can breed way too fast. bears to not touch caribou calves. After receiving
the end of [the Little Ice Age], he said that moose What you do is you break up the wolf packs and a permit from the Government of Manitoba to
came out of the Northwest Territories and you end up with multiple breeding males and test his decoy, he watched bears get zapped by
migrated into British Columbia and started females and the wolf populations explode in the the decoy and never come back.
occupying mountain ranges where they did not next year.” “To do this effectively, it would cost maybe a
formally occur, and with them came wolves.” Although people are now beginning to say that couple hundred thousand dollars at most a year,”
Stewart noted that a very important the decrease of caribou populations is due to Stewart said. “That's nothing compared to
commonality between every study conducted on climate change, Stewart refuted that there is not billions of other experiments and you're not
every caribou population in Canada revolved enough scientific evidence on climate change to killing anything if you leave nature alone.”
around calf mortality. “80% of the calves die in support this theory. “Maybe there's a part of it Stewart hopes to continue this research in future
the first four weeks of their life,” Stewart said. that's climate change, but you cannot escape your years.
“They only have one calf. They did not depend responsibility by shoving it off and saying its Unfortunately, only a couple residents attended
on their reproductive capability for their success climate change.” Stewart's presentation in Edson, but Stewart's
in nature; they depended on their ability to To successfully combat the caribou issue, passion for this issue remains and he plans to
isolate themselves away from predators.” Stewart believes that the decision needs to be travel across Alberta to educate residents on the
In the 1970/80s, there was a large interest inclusive of all people, non-lethal, minimally importance of caribou restoration.
emerging in the role bears play as predators of invasive of nature and above all, affordable. For more information on Stewart and his
babies of ungulates, primarily caribou. For 35 years, Stewart has believed that to conservation work, visit teams-ltd.com.
Through the use of radio collars on bears, one
caribou biologist discovered that in the
springtime, one third of bears travelled to
swamps where caribous were having their calves.
“He speculated that one third of all bears in
similar areas in Alberta were possibly involved
in killing caribou calves,” Stewart said.
Scientific work conducted in Alaska discovered
that bears were responsible for killing caribou
calves at a high rate. “The average kill per bear
was 34 calves in 4-5 weeks,” said Stewart.
In response to the caribou decline, there has
been various conservation efforts conducted over
the years to increase the caribou population,
many of which have failed due to a variety of
factors.
In 2006, an idea to create maternity pens
evolved. In this experiment, caribou were
confined within a fence to give birth to their
calves, and once that calf reached a certain age A huge thank you to Robert Pettersen, Jeff Miko, and Tessa Agrey from Secure Energy and Daryl
they would be released back into the wild. “But Parkhurst from Cardium Vac for braving the weather to help the students and staff at Vanier Community
once a caribou spends part of its life inside a Catholic School raise money towards cancer research during their Terry Fox Run on Friday, September
fence being fed by humans, it is no longer a wild 27. Thanks to their generous donation of time and delicious barbecued hamburgers, Vanier was able to
caribou,” Stewart said. “And low and behold raise $1500 for the Terry Fox Foundation. submitted Vanier School
photo submitted
