Research Team
- Brent Patterson, Research Scientist, WRDS
- Art Rodgers, MNR Centre for Northern Forest Ecosystem Research
- Jim Baker, MNR Applied Research and Development Branch
- Doug Reid, MNR Centre for Northern Forest Ecosystem Research
Project Objectives/Overview
Forest-dwelling caribou have experienced declining abundance and range retraction throughout large parts of the boreal zone in Ontario, resulting in the designation of woodland caribou as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act in Ontario and nationally under the federal Species at Risk Act. Inadequate food supplies may be one factor related to the recent declines in woodland caribou populations, but in general, unsustainable levels of predation are thought to be a major contributing factor. There is no reason to expect that a single factor explains caribou decline across all of Ontario and our goal is to develop a more complex model evaluation design that considers the impact of (and interactions among) multiple causal factors.
Objectives
- use satellite radio-telemetry data for wolves across three areas of northern Ontario to determine patterns of movement, home range use, predation risk, survival, and offspring recruitment
- use population models generated from the wolf and caribou collaring data to predict the long-term effect of forest disturbance from natural and anthropogenic causes on the probability of population persistence by woodland caribou and the potential caribou response to alternative management policies available to the government of Ontario
Study area
- We are conducting this work in three large study areas in northern Ontario; two disturbed landscapes within the area of the undertaking, and a third control site just west of Pickle Lake north of the area of the undertaking.
Collaborators and Participants
- John Fryxell, University of Guelph
- Ian Thompson, Canadian Forest Service
- Morgan Anderson, Msc. Candidate, University of Guelph
- Scott Moffatt, Msc. Candidate, University of Guelph
- Luke Vander Vennan, Msc. Candidate, University of Guelph
Funding Partners
- MNR Applied Research and Development Branch
- MNR Species at Risk Branch
- NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council)
- Ontario Graduate Student Scholarship
- Canadian Forest Service
- University of Guelph
