Caribou comeback: Can the species ever return to N.B.?

When the leaves in the forestsof New Brunswick change their colours, it signals to thousands of hunters to head into the woods in search of this provinces "big three"moose, black bear, and whitetail deer.

But the nearlycenturyold absence of a fourth big game animal, the woodland caribou, has had some hunting groups question if the native animal could ever be reintroduced in the province.

"They were here, as far as we know, since the glaciers left," said Gerry Parker, aformer officer with theCanadianWildlife Service who studied caribou in the CanadianArctic. "They were here thousandsof years."

"But the caribou were overhunted, mainly for their antlers," said Parker, who has written several books on early hunting and forestry in N.B. "People loved to hunt for those antlers."

In the province's early days those highly prized racks drew hunters north by the trainload coming from Boston and New York.

"In the 1880s word got out to the Americans that there was big game to hunt north of the border," said Parker.

Game shows andmagazinespromoted caribou hunting to a growing middle class that, while not able to afford big game hunting in Africa, could afford aday'stravel to New Brunswick to trophy hunt caribou along with moose and bear.

Unregulated hunt

A mappublishedin 1899 byNew York Field and Stream Publishing Co.carvedN.B. into a series of hunting grounds labelled as "Excellent Caribou Country, Excellent Caribou Ground, and Fair Moose & Caribou Ground."

Butunregulatedhunting would mark the decline ofthecaribou'sreign. A photo from the New Brunswick Provincial Archives is marked witha note that states"last caribou shot in NB." It shows hunterIssaacErdstanding over a large slain bull and is dated between 1906-1912.

Following thatfinal woodland caribouharvesta complete ban was placed on hunting caribou in N.B.

But it would prove too little, too late. According to Parker's research the last wild caribou sighting recorded in the province would be in the early 1930s.

But despite thedevastingimpact of overhunting on caribou there was another,unassuming,culprit thatensured that caribou would never return to New Brunswick.

"In the early 1800s the lumbermen went into the woods of New Brunswick once, maybe twice over, opening up the forests," said Parker. "That created grazing for deer."

Lethal parasite

That coupled with thealmost fanatical slaughter of wolves in the province by farmers and hunter alikeallowed for whitetail deer to push north.Along with them came a deadly parasite that would prove lethal to the remaining caribou herd.

"There is pretty strong evidence that this is one of the factors that led to the precipitous decline of the caribou," said StephenClayden, a botanist at the New Brunswick museum. "A meningeal worm, it's a parasiticnematode, or commonly called abrain worm."

"It is carried by whitetail deer," saidClayden. "But is not lethal to themlike it is to caribou."

Claydenhas written about the decline cariboupopulationinan articlepublishedin2000titled "The Last New Brunswick Caribou?"

"There were some really interesting observations by a guide and outfitter by the name of Bert Moore," said Clayden. "He wrote about his observations from his perspective in the late 1920s about caribou and deer in north-central New Brunswick."

"The last caribou he saw, in November 1928, was "walking in circles," wrote Clayden. "It was not until the early 1960s that this parasite, a tiny roundworm with the formidable name Parelaphostrongylus tenuis, was first shown to be the cause of "moose sickness." Further studies soon determined that its effects on caribou were similar to those in moose, but more severe and quick to develop."

"They can walk in circles for days," said Claydon. "If they get into water they can swim in circles until they drown."

"And there is strongcircumstantialevidence that it was the interactionbetweendeer and caribou that was one of the key factors that led to thedisappearanceof caribou from New Brunswick."

But the decline of the whitetail deer innorthernN.B. has some questioning if that could provide thechance for a successfulreintroduction of the caribou in this provincedespitethe failed attempts in others.

For decades the deer season has been cancelled in most northern parts of the province, some since1993, due to extremly low deer numbers according to the Department of Energy, Mines, and Resource Development. Some zoneshave only had a season reinstated recently, albiet in a limited capacity.

Caribou comeback?

Reintroduction of caribou has worked, and failed, in other province. Quebec and Newfoundland and Labradorhave seen partial successin theirattemptsto bring back the species.But Nova Scotia failed in their attempt in 1960s.Maine has triedto bring back the cariboutwice, first in1963 andagainin1990,tono avail.

But standing underneath several cariboumounts, displayed headsfrom hunts over acenturyagoatthe New Brunswickmuseumarchives,Claydendoubts that NewBrunswick's currentforestrypractices would allow for caribou to survive, let alonethrive in the province.

"We know that if we look at otherpopulationsthat they'refeedingin lichenrich habitats," saidClayden. "We still have some of those, such asareas with coastal bogs, likeMiscouIsland, that are rich in ground lichens that caribou would have feed on,foragingthem by digging down through the snow pack."

"But in thesummerwe find they tend to feed on tree lichens," saidClayden. "What some people call 'OldMan'sBeard.'"

"But the changing nature of the forest, in large part through the conversion of older stand to younger age classes, there probably isn't the abundance of tree lichens that there would have been acenturyago."

Today there are only two known caribou residing in the province; a juvenile female that was born in captivity at the Magnetic Hill Zoo in Moncton, along with her mother. Given the continued presence ofwhitetail deer coupled with current forestry practices Clayden believes captivity is most likely the onlyway for caribou to survive.

"It's conceivable I suppose that if there were no interaction between deer and caribou, if there was an experimental reintroduction maybe caribou could survive for awhile," saidClayden. "Butif we're thinking about a period of not just a few years, or even a few decades it seems to me the odds are probablyprettyslim."

A wiped out species might return to the province

7 years ago

Duration 3:39

The nearly century-old absence of the woodland caribou has had some hunting groups question whether the native animal could ever be reintroduced to New Brunswick.