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On July 17, 2026, Environment & Climate Change (ECC), Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) and Tłı̨chǫ Government (TG) submitted a joint management proposal, entitled “Joint Proposal on Management Actions for the Bluenose-East Barren-ground Caribou (Sahtì Ekwǫ̀) Herd 2027-2030”(“the Proposal”) to the WRRB, outlining proposed management actions for Sahtì Ekwǫ̀ in Wek’èezhìı. Following an initial assessment of the Proposal, the WRRB determined that a Level 2 review is appropriate, as per its Rule for Management Proposals. The Board opened the 2026 Sahtì Ekwǫ̀ Management Proceeding on August 27, 2026. Public participation in this WRRB proceeding is encouraged in accordance with the Board’s Rules.
Understanding how climate affects caribou demography is more urgent as we plan for recovery of declining migratory tundra caribou herds faced with trends toward a hotter climate. We examined relationships between climate and caribou vital rates for eight herds across western, central and eastern Arctic North America. For climate we used caribourelevant indicators based on NASA’s Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA2) dataset to estimate seasonal mean values on summer, fall, winter, spring, and calving ranges. Because sample sizes for most herds was limited, we examined the relationship among vital rates and between vital rates and climate indicators using one or two-independent variable regression models.
Aim: To quantify changes in vegetation productivity over the past three decades across five barren ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) herd ranges and assess how these changes are influencing caribou movement rates. Location: Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada.
This report is a summary of the annual technical report prepared by the PCTC, which is informed by scientific and technical information. This report is for co-management boards and agencies, First Nations, the Inuvialuit, and other governments, and for people who are interested in science and monitoring related to the herd. It is intended to help the Porcupine Caribou Management Board (PCMB) make recommendations on conservation and management of the herd and its habitat. The PCMB works with the Parties to the Porcupine Caribou Management Agreement at the Annual Harvest Meeting to ensure both science and Indigenous knowledge is used by the Board in its recommendations.
This report will help the PCMB and others who care about the Porcupine Caribou herd make decisions:
• to conserve the herd and its habitat
• to ensure opportunities for customary and traditional uses of the herd
• to assist with collaborative management of the herd across boundaries and among governments and users of the herd
The Best Management Practices for Mitigating the Effects of Roads on Barren-ground Caribou in the Northwest Territories (hereafter the Barren-ground Caribou BMPs for Roads) are intended to support developers who are planning or conducting road operations in barren-ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) habitat in the Northwest Territories, as well as regulators and other parties reviewing road development proposals within the range of barren-ground caribou.
This recovery strategy outlines the overall goals, objectives, and approaches for barrenground caribou conservation and recovery across the NWT. This recovery strategy applies to all barren-ground caribou herds that occur either entirely or partially in the NWT, with the exception of the Porcupine herd, which is considered geographically distinct and not at risk at this time.
Fecal and urine samples were collected during the spring migration of the Bluenose East (BNE) Caribou herd in order to provide these samples to Dr. Perry Barboza and Dave Gustin, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks (Alaska). These samples will be used for diet, energy balance, pregnancy rate and genetic analysis. Extra fecal samples were collected for Dr. Susan Kutz, University of Calgary, Calgary (Canada) to extract parasites.
Barren-ground caribou are mid-sized mammals found across the Northwest Territories. They overlap with other caribou populations, including woodland caribou and Dolphin and Union caribou, and can be distinguished by their size and colour. For the purposes of this report, nine herds of barren-ground caribou are recognized in the NWT including: Porcupine, Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula, Cape Bathurst, Bluenose-West, Bluenose-East, Bathurst, Beverly, Ahiak, and Qamanirjuaq. For the purposes of the status report, Porcupine caribou will be assessed separately from the additional 8 herds collectively referred to as barren-ground caribou throughout the report.
This document is a report on progress towards the recovery of barren-ground caribou in the NWT from 2021 to 2025. It describes the actions taken by co-management partners to implement the Recovery Strategy for Barren-ground Caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) in the Northwest Territories and meets the legislative requirement for a progress report under the Species at Risk (NWT) Act.
Barren-ground caribou are an iconic species in the Northwest Territories (NWT) and integral to the culture of many of the people who call the NWT home. However, many NWT barren-ground caribou herds have experienced declines over the last 20 to 30 years and in at least one herd, these declines have been both dramatic and well outside normal cyclical patterns. The causes of these declines are uncertain, but both widespread environmental and herd-specific drivers are likely contributing, with their influence on barrenground caribou likely to continue into the future.
To better understand the drivers of these barren-ground caribou declines, in 2022, the NWT Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program (NWT CIMP) and Polar Knowledge Canada (POLAR) collaborated to offer a special one-time funding opportunity for barren-ground caribou monitoring and research called the Collaborative Barren-ground Caribou Initiative (CBGCI). The key question behind the CBGCI was ‘what drives barren-ground caribou herd numbers up and down?’ The funded projects focused on animals from the Porcupine, Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula, Cape Bathurst, Bluenose-West, Bluenose-East, Bathurst, Beverly, Ahiak, and Qamanirjuaq barren-ground caribou herds.
A total of seven projects were funded through the CBGCI, the results of which are summarized within this synthesis report. These projects employed methods from both traditional and scientific knowledge systems and spanned various topics, including the direct and indirect impacts of climate and weather, human development and disturbance, predation, pathogens, and pollutants and contaminants. Several projects reported herein are the result of long-term relationships developed among communities, academia, and governments and reflect community priorities and leadership autonomy. Other projects are new, bringing outside expertise to address critical questions for barren-ground caribou and develop relationships.
This report describes the results of helicopter-based fall composition surveys of the Bathurst, Bluenose-East and Beverly barren-ground caribou herds conducted in October/November 2022 near the peak of the rut. The main purpose of these surveys was to estimate the sex ratio in the herd during the breeding season, and to estimate the proportion of females in the herd that were accompanied by a calf, as an index of calf survival in the first four and a half months of age.
Anthropogenic change is reshaping the regulation and stability of animal population dynamics across broad biogeographic gradients. For example, abiotic and biotic interactions can cause gradients in population cycle period and amplitude, but this research is mostly constrained to small mammals. Caribou and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus spp.) are threatened by human-caused change and are known to fluctuate in population over multidecadal scales. But it is unclear how ecological mechanisms drive these cycles and whether these mechanisms are similar to those found in smaller mammals. Here, we carried out a global biogeographic study of Rangifer population cycles in response to top-down and bottom-up mechanisms. We hypothesized that predation and food resources would interact to affect the amplitude and period of population cycles across the species' range. To test this, we used a two-pronged approach: (1) we conducted a range-wide statistical analysis of population data from 43 Rangifer herds; and (2) we built tri-trophic mechanistic population models of predator–Rangifer–food interactions. This approach allowed us to merge theoretical and empirical approaches to better understand the drivers of population cycling across space and time. We found statistical evidence for long-term cyclicity in 19 Rangifer populations, and some evidence that decreasing food productivity and winter temperatures may have caused increased period length and amplitude across spatial gradients. Our mechanistic model largely agreed with our empirical results, showing that decreased food resources and increased predation can drive more intense cycles over time. These paired empirical and theoretical results suggest that gradients in Rangifer population cycles match ecological mechanisms found in smaller mammals. Moreover, human-caused shifts in climate, food resources, and predators may shift Rangifer population dynamics towards more booms and busts, threatening population persistence. We recommend that dynamic management strategies, in tandem with theoretical and empirical approaches, could be used to better understand and manage population cycles across space and time.
Adult survival is a crucial factor influencing the population dynamics of caribou (Rangifer tarandus), yet its relationship with environmental variables remains poorly understood. We explored linkages among lichen abundance (the primary winter forage), snow depth, and overwinter survival of adult female caribou in the Western Arctic Herd (WAH), a large population of barren-ground caribou (R. t. granti) in northwest Alaska. We hypothesized that caribou wintering in areas with greater lichen cover would experience higher survival rates, and that snow depth would moderate this relationship. Using GPS telemetry data from 1,067 caribou winters between 2009 and 2024, we investigated overwinter survival as a function of lichen cover and snow depth. Higher lichen cover was significantly associated with reduced overwinter mortality hazard, but this relationship was strongly and non-linearly affected by snow depth. At intermediate snow depths, caribou in low-lichen habitats experienced 9.1 times higher mortality risk compared to high-lichen areas. However, in deep snow conditions the survival benefits of lichen diminished substantially, suggesting that deep snow may limit forage accessibility. Our results underscore the importance of lichen-rich habitats for barren-ground caribou winter survival and highlight the complex interplay between forage accessibility and snow conditions. Arctic-wide declines in lichen cover could pose a threat to barren-ground caribou populations, with potential long-term demographic consequences, as our study suggests that lichen abundance plays an important role in determining the overwinter survival of adult female caribou.
The report describes the results of a calving ground photo survey of the Bluenose-East caribou herd conducted in June of 2018 west of Kugluktuk, Nunavut (NU). The survey objective was to estimate abundance of breeding females and overall herd size that could be compared to results of previous calving ground surveys done in 2010, 2013 and 2015.
This report describes the results of a calving ground photo survey of the Bluenose-East barren-ground caribou herd conducted June 1-15, 2021 west of Kugluktuk, Nunavut. The main objectives were to estimate the numbers of breeding females, adult females, and adults in the herd, and to compare with results of previous calving ground surveys of this herd, the last in 2018. A calving ground survey of the Bathurst herd was carried out simultaneously, and results from that survey are reported separately.
This report describes the results of a calving ground photo survey of the Bluenose-East barren-ground caribou herd conducted June 4-13, 2023 west of Kugluktuk in Nunavut. The survey was flown to develop updated estimates of numbers of breeding females, adult females and herd size. The Bluenose-East survey included a helicopter-based composition survey June 11-13 to estimate the proportions of breeding females and calf: cow ratios. A composition survey was also flown over the Bathurst herd’s calving ground west of Bathurst Inlet June 14-15, and results of this survey are included here. An integrated population model was used with updated demographic data from both herds to better understand recent trends.