Tǫdzı (Boreal Caribou) tour through Tłı̨chǫ Communities

The Wek'èezhìı Renewable Resources Board (WRRB) is in the process of touring the four Tłı̨chǫ communities in October and November to get input from residents on whether tǫdzı should be relisted, if this would impact the community in a positive or negative way, and to gather any missing information.

The NWT Species at Risk Committee (SARC) recommended this year that tǫdzı (boreal caribou) retain the legal listing of ‘threatened’ after its first reassessment.

Once a species is added to the Species at Risk registry, it is reassessed every ten years.

Aimee Guile, Conservation Biologist and Simon Whitehouse, Communications Officer with WRRB and Stephanie Behrens, Wildlife and Fisheries Biologist with the Tłı̨chǫ Government hosted presentations in Behchokǫ̀ on Oct. 12,  Gamètì on Oct. 13 and Wekweètì’ on Oct. 25. 

Another presentation will take place at Whatì’s Culture Centre on Nov. 9.
As with past events, dinner will take place at 5 p.m. followed by a presentation at 6 p.m.

Tǫdzı was first legally listed as threatened under the NWT Species at Risk Act in 2014 following nearly two years of community consultation. At that time, it was believed that population numbers were declining across the territory at such a rate that the species could disappear within a generation.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT TODZI, PLEASE CLICK HERE. 

Over the last decade, however, population numbers have shown signs of improvement based on Traditional Knowledge and science across the Northwest Territories.
There is now believed to be an adult population of between 6,000 and 7,000 tǫdzı across the territory, with the highest numbers in the Dehcho.

Of those, it is believed there are approximately 1,290 tǫdzı in Wek'èezhìı.

SARC, which is made up of independent Indigenous knowledge, community knowledge, and science experts on species, habitat, northern ecosystems or conservation say that although these figures show some evidence of improvement from the last decade, there remains concern about tǫdzı’s ability to recover in numbers due to direct human impact, road construction and climate change – all of which pose a threat to the animal’s habitat needs.

In Wek'èezhìı, the opening of the Tłı̨chǫ Highway late last year and significant forest fires in 2022 have presented renewed fears of possible negative effects on tǫdzı’s numbers.