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PHOTOGRAPHS BY RYAN DICKIE
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For centuries, Indigenous communities in British Columbia relied on hunting mountain caribou for survival, but dwindling herds have meant that recent generations of the communities hardly see caribou and have never hunted them. Now, two First Nations have turned their focus to successfully increasing the numbers of the severely depleted Klinse-Za herd.
To do that, they have taken pregnant caribou to pens guarded from the predators. The calves are born and are nurtured there, and then are returned to the wild when they can stand. The First Nations in the western Canadian province also have, reluctantly, had to cull some wolves, the caribou’s main predator.
The Klinse-Za herd has tripled in size over the past nine years, marking a huge gain for the caribou in B.C.—and a point of pride for Roland Willson, chief of West Moberly First Nations. “In saving caribou,” he tells Nat Geo, “we’re saving ourselves.”
Read the full story here.
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