The big jolly guy with the white hair and beard may be a mythical figure, but for many people, he’s synonymous with the season.
A song or two aside, little attention is paid to the helpers who help Santa get from one place to another. That’s right, I’m talking about the real-life holiday heroes: reindeer — also known as caribou.
The thing is, many caribou herds in Canada are at risk of local extinction. But a number of communities across the country haven’t forgotten about the ungulates — and are determined to save them and their habitats.
Take B.C. reporter Sarah Cox’s recent feature from southeast British Columbia, for example. Her story takes a look at what locals call the ’boo shack, which could become a multimillion-dollar effort to rescue one of North America’s last deep-snow caribou herds.
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Decades of industrial logging — clearcuts, logging roads — and other disturbances have left caribou vulnerable to wolves and other predators. The critically endangered Central Selkirk caribou herd has a mere two dozen animals, not including seven calves born this year (we aren’t counting an ailing newborn). Instead of choosing to say bye to the herd, everyone — including snowmobilers, heli-skiers, businesses, Indigenous communities, the township of Nakusp and the B.C. government — chose to act and try to recover an animal that has lived in the area since the end of the last Ice Age.
For B.C.’s boreal caribou, more than 80 per cent of whom live on Treaty 8 territory, logging and oil and gas development have resulted in thousands of seismic lines cutting through forests.
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The caribou, called medzih in Dene, find these carved-up corridors extremely convenient to get around, much to their detriment, editor Michelle Cyca writes. Members of Fort Nelson First Nation, who have lived with the medzih for thousands of years, are on a mission to heal the ravaged landscape, one tree at a time — and to share their rewilding techniques with other First Nations.
Check out Sarah’s on-the-ground feature here, and Michelle’s piece, with gorgeous photos of the medzih by Ryan Dickie, here.
Take care and remember the reindeer,
Karan Saxena
Audience engagement editor
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Some 2023 favourites
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Slow and steady: the exciting world of slug racing
By Francesca Fionda
Photos & video by Uytae Lee
On this island in British Columbia, a longstanding tradition of slug races highlights life in the slow lane — while showing kids to care for the important, slimy creatures.
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What will it take to make traditional foods thrive again?
By Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood
Illustrations by Karlene Harvey
Skeena River sockeye have declined 75% since 1913. Woodland caribou have declined by more than half in the past century. But with the right resources, First Nations are bringing ancestral foods back from the brink.
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This might be the most beautiful place on Earth. But only half of it is protected — for now
By Elaine Anselmi
Photos by Pat Kane
Throughout Torngat Mountains National Park, hundreds of sites tell the story of people, wildlife and change in northern Labrador. But it’s all connected to the coastal waters — the proposed site of the first Inuit-led national marine conservation area.
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All of us at The Narwhal, taking a wee break for the holidays (we’ll get to your emails as soon as we’re back on Jan. 2!). Tell your friends to sign up for our newsletter — so we can bring them some fresh stories about the natural world in the new year.
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