Mighty caribou herds dwindle, warming blamed

// added October 05, 2009 // 9 comments //
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Vierotchka

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ON THE PORCUPINE RIVER TUNDRA, Yukon Territory — Here on the endlessly rolling and tussocky terrain of northwest Canada, where man has hunted caribou since the Stone Age, the vast antlered herds are fast growing thin. And it's not just here.

Across the tundra 1,500 kilometers (1,000 miles) to the east, Canada's Beverly herd, numbering more than 200,000 a decade ago, can barely be found today.

Halfway around the world in Siberia, the biggest aggregation of these migratory animals, of the dun-colored herds whose sweep across the Arctic's white canvas is one of nature's matchless wonders, has shrunk by hundreds of thousands in a few short years.

From wildlife spectacle to wildlife mystery, the decline of the caribou — called reindeer in the Eurasian Arctic — has biologists searching for clues, and finding them.

They believe the insidious impact of climate change, its tipping of natural balances and disruption of feeding habits, is decimating a species that has long numbered in the millions and supported human life in Earth's most inhuman climate.

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  1. groups:
    News,   Green,   Current Tonight,   Max and Jason: Still Up
  2. tags:
    Environment,  Climate Change,  Global Warming,  Canada,  5 more
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    Vierotchka

9 comments // Mighty caribou herds dwindle, warming blamed

  • primalscreamer
    • 0
      primalscreamer  

    • Which means natives won't have anything to hunt. Do you realize how fuked that is? The people who lived their lives the right way for hundreds of years are the ones who have to pay for our mess ups first. Soon it'll be our turn.

    • 4 months ago
  • gregrester
  • gregrester
  • csmonut
    • 0
      csmonut  

    • I remember in the 70s, people were warning of a coming climate change if we didn't do something. It may have been wrong in the idea that it would be greenhouse gases and we would have a world like the Blade Runner movie....but they were right in that we were hurting our panet and would rue the day.

    • 4 months ago
  • csmonut
    • 0
      csmonut  

    • Also, because of global warming, diseases that would have been dormant during certain times of the year are flourishing year around.
      Yep....as Progresshiv says,
      the coming changes will not be pleasant.

    • 4 months ago
  • misticdog44
  • 24French
    • 0
      24French  

    • We're down to caribou and wildebeest as our last great land mammal migrators. Why in god's name do we think we can continue to have this enormous population while all the other mammals dwindle? We ain't that different.

    • 4 months ago
  • maof4brats
  • Progresshiv
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