New research from the Wildlife Science Centre and a team of collaborators found that caribou migration routes are shrinking. Both Western science and Indigenous knowledge recognize the critical role of migration in sustaining wildlife, yet these movements are increasingly disrupted by human activity worldwide. The team analyzed 35 years of telemetry data from southern mountain caribou to determine if and how their migration routes had changed.
Southern mountain caribou have two types of migration: horizontal migration between summer and winter ranges, and twice-per-year vertical migration between high and low elevations.
The research team found that caribou migrations were decreasing in distance, duration, and elevation range. The changes in elevational and horizontal migration correlated with increased human disturbance, especially of low-elevation winter ranges.
This research caught the attention of Stoke FM in Revelstoke, and co-author and Wildlife Science Centre co-director Rob Serrouya met up for an interview:
This research was also covered on earth.com: https://www.earth.com/news/caribou-migration-patterns-disrupted-by-human-activities/
Find a link to the peer-reviewed paper under our Reports & Publications section:
Read the open-access research paper