Critical Calving Habitat Among Mountain Caribou (Rangifer Tarandus Caribou) in West Central Alberta

Abstract from presentation made at the March 2015 conference for the Alberta Chapter of The Wildlife Society.

CRITICAL CALVING HABITAT AMONG MOUNTAIN CARIBOU (RANGIFER TARANDUS CARIBOU) IN WEST CENTRAL ALBERTA. Barry Nobert, Sarah Rovang, Gordon Stenhouse and Laura Finnegan.

In Alberta, low calf survival has been identified as an important contributor to the decline of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) populations. With the goal of identifying critical calving habitat, we explored habitat use and selection among adult female caribou during the neonatal period (0-4 weeks) in the Narraway (NAR) and Redrock-Prairie Creek (RPC) herds. The range of these two mountain herds straddle the Alberta and British Columbia border, north of Jasper National Park. We compared habitat use and selection between: 1) cows with calves and those without and 2) cows that had a calf survive compared to those that did not. We used GPS collar data collected from 81 adult females from 1998 to 2014 and identified calf parturition and mortality events based on movement rates. Using this technique we identified 60 calving sites of the NAR caribou population and 57 calving sites of the RPC population. The calving season ranged from 18 May to 19 June, with 31 May as the peak calving date. Our habitat selection analysis revealed that cows with calves tended to use areas at higher elevation and less valley bottoms compared to cows without calves. Additionally calf mortalities were more likely when cows used areas at lower elevations, areas with greater snow cover and south facing slopes. The analysis of anthropogenic disturbance is ongoing but will be discussed. Our results increase the knowledge of functional caribou habitat and can be used to guide industry management practices in caribou ranges.

Select slides from the presentation can be viewed by opening the PDF below.