Subject: ESA and Woodland Caribou (fwd)
Date: May 30 08:17:45 1996
From: 'Dan' Daniel Victor - dvictor at u.washington.edu


FYI, Tweets.

Dan Victor, Seattle, WA <dvictor at u.washington.edu>
Tweeters = http://weber.u.washington.edu/~dvictor/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 30 May 96 02:44:42 EDT
From: Helen Engle <102032.2444 at CompuServe.COM>
To: List Server - WA Audubon <audubon-washington at igc.apc.org>

Auduboners:
Here's an ESA item of interest dealing with recovery of one of the most
interesting of our state's endangered species. Funding for part of this
recovery project came from the nongame "dedicated funds," the revenues from
personalized license plates that help support such work by the WA Department of
Fish & Wildlife.

Helen Engle
=========================

The following item is from The Sportsman, newsletter of the Tacoma Sportsmen's
Club, June 1996. No byline was listed.

WOODLAND CARIBOU

The woodland caribou is a member of the deer family, smaller than an elk
but larger than a deer. They have large hooves that help them walk on snow,
earning them the nickname "Bigfoot of the Selkirks." Both sexes have antlers,
although the male's are larger and have brow tines called "shovels" that extend
over the face. Caribou have chocolate-brown coats and the males have thick,
white manes.

Historically woodland caribou lived in high elevation forests of Canada
and the northern US, including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Michigan,
Minnesota, Idaho and Washington. The Selkirk Mountains of northeast Washington
and northern Idaho are home to the last population of woodland caribou in the
US. Due to habitat fragmentation and over-hunting only about 25 individuals
were left by the early 1980's.

Washington listed the species as endangered in 1982 and the US Fish and
Wildlife Service listed it as endangered in 1984. US Forest Service land
management plans in both the Colville and Idaho Panhandle forests have included
caribou habitat protection areas since 1988 and 1987, respectively.

WOODLAND CARIBOU RECOVERY PROGRAM UPDATE

Nineteen woodland caribou were captured in Canada and released in
northeast Washington' Selkirk Mountains in May 1996 in an effort to recover the
country's most endangered mammal. The caribou are the first released in the
Washington portion of the Selkirks. They bring the total number of caribou in
the Selkirk ecosystem, including northern Idaho and British Columbia to 69.

WA Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) biologists led the transplant
operation as part of an interagency recovery plan for the species. Idaho led a
similar transplant effort in 1987, 88 and 90 when a total of 60 caribou were
released in the Idaho portion of the range. WDFW plans to capture and release
20 more caribou in March of 1997 and 20 more in March of 1998, pending federal
funding.

This year's transplant was funded with $190,000 from the US F&WS through
Endangered Species Act funds, plus $20,000 from WDFW's nongame wildlife fund
through the sale of personalized motor vehicle license plates.

The caribou were captured using nets fired from helicopters. They were
held in a corral for a 72-hour quarantine until tests showed they were free of
disease, then trucked tin crates to the Selkirk release sites. Seven of the 19,
three bulls and four cows, came from the Blue River area of northern British
Columbia, just east of Wells Gray Provincial Park. British Columbia wildlife
biologists had allocated eight from that area, but poor weather kept helicopters
down too long to capture more than seven. The first seven were released April
13. The other 12 caribou, five bulls and seven cows, came form an area just
south of Prince George BC. They were released April 13.

All nineteen caribou are radio-collared for tracking. In the week of
April 26, all of them were in the Salmo-Priest Wilderness Area in the Colville
National Forest and Pond Oreille County.
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