On Jan. 14, a team of biologists working for British Columbia, Canada, captured a female Reindeer in the Selkirk Mountains north of the U.S.-Canada border. This female North American reindeer is believed to be the last of the reindeer population in southern Selkekou, which once migrated extensively back and forth across the U.S.-Canada border.
The captured females are now being fed in captive farms near Revelstoke. A month later, British Columbia biologists plan to release the female deer into the wild with two other North American reindeer from the same endangered population to join Canada's more and more stable population of Reindeer.
However, this attempt to protect the endangered North American reindeer population is now controversial.
One of the points of contention is whether the three exotic Reindeer will be able to integrate into Canada's native populations as smoothly as biologists hope.
The North American reindeer living in Canada are divided into three types according to their ecological type, namely migratory barren-ground ecotype, mountain ecotype and forest-dwelling ecotype. The so-called ecotype (ecotype) refers to the different taxa of the same species due to long-term living in different environments and become genetically different taxa adapted to different ecological environments.
The three Reindeer to be released into the wild belong to the mountain Reindeer and have only been found to live in the forested areas of northwestern North America, and it is still unknown whether they can adapt to the living habits of other North American reindeer populations and the local living environment.
Another focus of controversy is the protection of habitats.
Although both british columbia and the United States have identified a "core habitat" for mountain reindeer that requires extensive protection, the adjacent areas of the U.S.-Canada border, particularly on the British Columbia side, are currently reforged. Deforestation is one of the reasons for the decline in the reindeer population in North America.
Deforestation does not directly lead to a decline in the number of reindeer populations in North America. The decline in populations is caused by a series of "chain reactions" triggered by logging: deforestation promotes an increase in the number of other ungulates, such as moose and other deer; these increases in numbers, which attract predators such as wolves and mountain lions. These predators then spread into protected but fragmented protected areas and feed on the Reindeer that live there, causing a decline in the Population of The Reindeer.
Because of this dynamic, scientists aren't sure if U.S. and Canadian conservation measures will actually restore the North American reindeer populations that live along the border. "Habitats may have disappeared too much," said Aaron Reid, a wildlife scientist at the British Columbia Forestry Department, which oversees reindeer conservation.
And if local reindeer populations cannot be recovered or even artificially removed from the wild, conservationists fear it will lead to the permanent loss of protection for the already small habitat.
In the past, British Columbia has eliminated the protection of the population's former habitat due to the extinction of another North American reindeer population. Without protection, the survival of other species living in protected areas will also be threatened. "The protection of the core habitat of the Reindeer is like an umbrella, a large umbrella that protects many other species," Reid said. ”
Title image from: Science