Know your 'Bou
Woodland caribou, a forest-dwelling type of caribou, were once found nearly everywhere there were forests in Canada, from Prince Edward Island on the Atlantic coast to the Pacific islands of Haida Gwaii. But today, their population is almost entirely confined to the Boreal Forest. Protecting the Woodland caribou's remaining carbon-rich habitat is also crucial to the fight against climate change.
Types of Woodland caribou
There are several populations of Woodland caribou found across Canada's Boreal...
- Boreal Woodland caribou are found across Canada's Boreal Forest. This is the largest population of Woodland caribou in the world, but it's also threatened -- half of their habitat has disappeared in the last 50 years due to development.
- The Northern Mountain population is found in the Boreal forest of northern BC, Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
- Good news -- The island of Newfoundland is home to the one regional population of woodland caribou that is not at risk... for now.
...and in other parts of Canada:
- The extinct Dawson's population once lived on the islands of Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) on the northwest coast of British Columbia, Now, there's only one -- stuffed and mounted in the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria.
- The endangered Atlantic (Gaspesie) caribou are the last vestige of a population that once roamed New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and the New England states. It is the only population of Woodland caribou that has a completed recovery strategy under the federal Species at Risk Act
- The threatened and endangered Southern Mountain population is found in the Rockies of British Columbia and Alberta. A sub-population, the Mountain caribou, is recognized by British Columbia as endangered. Learn more at mountaincaribou.org.
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