Free: Contests & Raffles.
The woodland (or mountain) caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) are considered to be the most endangered large mammal in the lower 48 states. Woodland caribou were historically distributed throughout many of the northern states including, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Vermont, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Washington. Outside of Canada, woodland caribou are now found only in the Selkirk Mountains of Idaho and Washington. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service first listed the woodland caribou as endangered in 1984. This cooperatively funded project started in 1995. Objectives of the study are designed to significantly increase the endangered population of woodland caribou in the Selkirk Mountains of Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia.Our plan is to transplant over 60 caribou from central B.C. to the far northeastern corner of Washington in Pend Oreille County. Caribou are captured on snow-covered ridges in nets that are shot over animal from a special rifle fired by a biologist in a helicopter. After a three-day disease quarantine held in a corral, the caribou are trucked to the Selkirks release site, roughly 18 hours away.Once the animals are released, biologists monitor their movements, habitat use, and overall survival. By studying marked caribou, we hope to identify important habitats, specific food items, travel corridors, movement patterns, calf reproduction and survival, survival of adults, and causes of mortality. We also have radio-collared some of the resident caribou in Washington to allow for a comparison with the transplanted animals. Keep your eyes open for new developments on this site. We will be creating a related website called "Track-A-Bou" . This site will allow us to provide current research and management information to school children. The program will allow interested readers to follow our research on a monthly basis, and even retrieve data from the Internet and manipulate these data on their own computer, or in the classroom as a group.
The wolves ate them all when they moved in.
Quote from: Ray on December 23, 2008, 09:04:46 AMThe wolves ate them all when they moved in.May be some truth in this. I talked to some ol' boys in Ione a few years back and they said that the initial release of six caribou in the wildlife viewing area near Meadowlake resulted in six carcasses. May not have been wolves though. More likely related to the grizzlies that were introduced to the viewing area the year before. Brilliant.
Quote from: croix on December 23, 2008, 09:29:08 AMQuote from: Ray on December 23, 2008, 09:04:46 AMThe wolves ate them all when they moved in.May be some truth in this. I talked to some ol' boys in Ione a few years back and they said that the initial release of six caribou in the wildlife viewing area near Meadowlake resulted in six carcasses. May not have been wolves though. More likely related to the grizzlies that were introduced to the viewing area the year before. Brilliant.There have been no grizzly introductions up there. It's more likely that it was cats eating them, although wolves will undoubtedly eat a few of the bous if they get the chance. I'll continue to push for habitat work and smarter logging practices to enhance the populations of all the animals (yes wolves too) because the land can support predators and prey animals if we take better care of it. Spray the weeds and harvest trees with that in mind...we can have both.
