Radio Script
1998

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Peary Caribou Decline
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STORY: On windswept islands in the Arctic Ocean high above Canada's Northwest Territories lives a subspecies of caribou named after American explorer Robert Peary. For thousands of years, small herds of Peary caribou have managed to eke out an existence on the island's dwarf shrubs and grasses. And as one might expect in such a harsh polar desert, the population of caribou rose and fell in sync with the environment.

But recently, Peary caribou have taken a dramatic turn for the worse, and that has biologists worried about the very survival of the species. Anne Gunn with Canada's Department of Resources and Wildlife says the population has declined by 95 percent over the past 30 years.

GUNN: "The first survey was done in 1961, and in the western high Arctic there was just over 24,000 caribou. We did a survey last year and our estimate is 1,100."

Most alarming is the loss of nearly all of the Peary caribou that lived on Bathurst Island. Where once 3,000 caribou roamed, today only 75 remain.

Anne Gunn says that while the Arctic has always been a harsh place with scarce food, she blames unusually wet and snowy winters for the demise of the Peary caribou.

GUNN: "It was relatively warm when the snow fell, so the snow is more dense. There was freezing rain, which put down ice layers on the ground and snow. The caribou end up spending too much energy that isn't offset by the amount of food that they can find. So they used up their fat reserves and they ran out of energy and died."

And although she says it may be too early to say for sure, Anne Gunn says the unusual weather may be the result of global climate change.

GUNN: "The trend in the temperatures and precipitation in the western high Arctic--and the three severe winters are part of that trend--are consistent with predictions for global climate change. But the problem with science is that we won't know about global climate change until we're further into it, until a greater body of knowledge accumulates. It's difficult to say that global climate change is responsible. All we can say is that the facts are consistent."

Fewer Peary caribou likely will have a major impact on the region's people and ecosystem as well. Native Inuit hunters who depend on the Peary caribou for food and clothing have agreed to stop hunting them, taking instead the donated caribou meat and hides from healthy herds farther south. Anne Gunn says the rare Arctic wolf, a key predator of the Peary caribou, also will be affected.

OUTRO: For Arctic Science Journeys, this is Doug Schneider, reporting from Fairbanks, Alaska.

Learn more about the Peary caribou at http://www.nwf.org/internationalwildlife/1998/caribou.html