What Happened to the Beverly Caribou Herd after 1994?

Abstract

The Beverly herd was one of the first large migratory herds of barren-ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) defined in northern Canada on the basis of annual return of breeding females to traditional calving grounds near Beverly Lake in Nunavut. In 1994, herd size was estimated at 276 000 ± 106 600 (SE) adult caribou, but monitoring was minimal from 1994 to 2007. The next calving ground survey in 2002 revealed that caribou densities had dropped by more than half since 1994; annual surveys following from 2007 to 2009 demonstrated an extreme decline in numbers of calving cows, and by 2011, no newborn calves were seen there. We examine two possible explanations for the declining use of the traditional Beverly calving grounds from 1994 until their abandonment by 2011. One explanation is that a true numerical decline in herd size occurred, driven in at least the later stages by low cow survival and poor calf productivity, which led the remaining Beverly cows to switch to the neighbouring Ahiak calving ground 250 km to the north in 2007 – 09 and join that herd. An alternative explanation is that the decline on the traditional Beverly calving grounds was largely due to a distributional shift to the north of the Beverly herd that may have begun in the mid-1990s. We suggest that the former explanation is the more likely and that the Beverly herd no longer exists as a distinct herd. We acknowledge that gaps in monitoring of Beverly and Ahiak caribou hamper definitive evaluation of the Beverly herd’s fate. The large size sometimes achieved by barren-ground caribou herds is not a guarantee of persistence; monitoring shortfalls may hamper management actions to address declines.

Tactical departures and strategic arrivals: Divergent effects of climate and weather on caribou spring migrations

“…(), though they are sometimes referred to as “Beverly and Ahiak” or “Beverly/Ahiak” due to a hypothesized merging of a depleted Beverly herd and a more eastern Ahiak herd (Adamczewski et al. ). For those animals where herd assignments were ambiguous due to overlapping wintering ranges, we assigned herd status based on methods outlined in Nagy et al.…”

The Curious Case of King William Island, Nunavut: An Island Overlooked in Caribou Research

“…, 2015). However, Inuit harvesters (including Elders from Gjoa Haven) had already described the existence of this herd and noted that caribou calved on the islands along the coast of Queen Maud Gulf (CARMA, 2013a), and biologists have generally recognized the Ahiak herd as being distinct since the 1980s (Heard et al, 1987;Gunn et al, 2000Gunn et al, , 2011Gunn et al, , 2013Gunn and D'Hont, 2002;GN, 2007a;Johnson et al, 2008;Adamczewski et al, 2015). Nevertheless, the Ahiak herd has generally had less priority in monitoring efforts because of its remote range and the belief that it was rarely accessible to hunters (Johnson et al, 2008;Poole et al, 2014).…”

Genetic diversity, structure and gene flow of migratory barren-ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) in Canada

“…Recent analyses of telemetry data suggest that spatial affiliations of females across annual seasonal ranges and fidelity to calving grounds is a relatively robust basis for subpopulation designation (Nagy et al, 2011), while recognizing that fluctuations in abundance can change spatial affiliations (Hinkes et al, 2005;Gunn et al, 2012;Adamczewski et al, 2015). However, previous population genetic data suggest homogeneous population structure across the range (Zittlau, 2004).…”

“…For the Beverly (BEV) and Ahiak (AH) subpopulation(s), samples were obtained from caribou that calved on the Inland Beverly calving ground (n = 30) and on the Queen Maud Gulf (QMG) calving ground (n = 16). These samples, collected during the early post-calving period, could be from the Beverly This journal is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License Editor in Chief: Birgitta Åhman, Technical Editor: Eva Wiklund and Graphic Design: H-G Olofsson, www.rangiferjournal.com 4 subpopulation, or the Ahiak subpopulation, or a mixture of both (Nagy et al, 2011;Campbell et al, 2012;Adamczewski et al, 2015). Calving grounds for the mainland subpopulations are shown in Figure 1.…”