Ed Struzik, reporting on this global decline in Yale Environment 360, wrote last year, "Thirty-four of the 43 major herds that scientists have studied worldwide in the last decade are in decline, with caribou numbers plunging 57percentt from their historical peaks".
Moose, deer, elk, and antelope are common regionally, although caribou numbers have declined.
Thirty-four of the 43 major herds that scientists have studied worldwide in the last decade are in decline, with caribou numbers plunging 57percentt from their historical peaks.
Alberta officials have defended the killing of wolves in regions where woodland caribou numbers have plummeted, yet these officials acknowledge that preserving habitat is essential.
"Already we're seeing droughts that are affecting spawning grounds for Arctic char and a drastic decline in caribou numbers, and climate change is a factor.
His successors, including Sarah Palin, have all supported a policy of "intensive management" that removes wolves and bears with the goal of boosting moose and caribou numbers for hunters.
The last century has seen a precipitous drop in caribou numbers.
Many reindeer have out-migrated with the caribou during spring migrations, reducing reindeer numbers.
In all, more than 500 wolves in the Little Smoky River region have been destroyed in a controversial effort to save woodland caribou, whose numbers have plummeted as the oil, gas, and logging industries have increasingly carved up Alberta's boreal forest in recent decades.
This time of year, they are here in the refuge in huge numbers – the Porcupine caribou herd, now numbering about 169,000, migrates from Canada's Yukon/Northwest Territories every spring to calve on the north slope, then returns with the calves to its winter grazing lands.
