Nopiming fire leaves herd of endangered caribou at risk

Maggie Wilcox · CBC

· Posted: May 24, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

The southernmost herd of endangered woodland caribou successful Manitoba mightiness not beryllium capable to retrieve from wildfire-caused situation and colonisation losses, experts say.

Fire pain patterns and maps suggest a occurrence that has ravaged much than 100,000 hectares successful and westbound of Nopiming Provincial Park successful eastbound Manitoba has destroyed a important portion of the situation of the Owl-Flintstone caribou herd.

Boreal woodland caribou are classified arsenic threatened nether the Manitoba Endangered Species Act. There are an estimated 1,500 to 3,000 successful the province.

Daniel Dupont, an ecologist and biology prof astatine St. Boniface University, is disquieted that past week's inferno volition weaken the woodland caribou colonisation successful respective ways. 

"The caribou person conscionable mislaid the situation wherever their females springiness commencement from mid-May to June. This is simply a susceptible play for caribou, arsenic the females are pregnant," Dupont said successful French. "The fires volition person an impact."

The Nopiming country is location to betwixt 40 and 60 woodland caribou, helium said.

Although it's excessively aboriginal to cognize the nonstop decease toll, Dupont says helium already knows the taxon volition beryllium affected implicit the agelong term.

"They are precise delicate to changes successful their habitats," helium said successful French.

Woodland caribou request a mature wood with decades of vegetation maturation to unrecorded and reproduce, helium says.

Human enactment contributes to problems

Fires are indispensable for wood renewal successful the region, but the standard of the blazes successful Nopiming Park this twelvemonth is abnormal, Dupont says.

"In caller decades, humans person been precise bully astatine putting retired fires. As a result, we person ample tracts of mature wood that tin make these large, hard-to-control fires," Dupont explained successful French.

Climate alteration is besides a factor, helium says.

Dupont estimates that two-thirds of caribou situation indispensable stay intact aft fires to guarantee the wellness of the boreal wood and let the animals capable country to unrecorded and reproduce.

Eric Reder, manager of the Wilderness Committee Manitoba, a nationalist biology extortion group, says the caribou mightiness ne'er instrumentality to the burned lands. 

"We're really, truly acrophobic that this confederate caribou scope that we've been talking astir protecting for much than 25 years whitethorn good beryllium gone."

Conservationists person been demanding greater situation protections for decades.

"We worked for a agelong clip to get caribou listed nether the Manitoba Endangered Species Act. Unfortunately, the large measurement that caribou request crossed the state is situation protection," Reder said.

A situation 25 years successful the making

Reder is frustrated that a bid of Manitoba governments has not taken enactment to support woodland caribou, which helium describes arsenic a captious portion of the boreal wood ecosystem.

"We've had a connection to support a ample conception of Nopiming Provincial Park and the country extracurricular of it that the caribou are utilizing. That connection has been connected the books since 2011, and we haven't seen the authorities act."

He blames those successful power.

"We've truly isolated this herd and we've caused this occupation that we've been saying was going to hap for astatine slightest 20 years."

Dupont and Reder some accidental the deficiency of backing for caribou probe successful Manitoba hampers conservation efforts. Without organized tracking and surveillance of herds, scientists are near successful the dark, particularly successful the aftermath of earthy disasters.

"The Manitoba authorities has severely underfunded caribou research. We bash not person nationalist information astir however galore animals are collared. These animals are expected to beryllium protected nether national instrumentality and nether provincial legislation, and it's not happening. It makes it precise hard for america to cognize precisely wherever the animals are," Reder said.

In its woodland caribou conservation strategy, drawn up 10 years ago, the Manitoba authorities promised to reappraisal and update the provincial betterment strategy for the taxon successful 2025.

The state said successful an emailed connection that they person not received immoderate reports of boreal caribou mortalities successful the Nopiming oregon Manigotagan River areas since the occurrence started, but are "aware of the hazard to caribou successful this country arsenic the occurrence has impacted a known calving habitat at a clip erstwhile the caribou could typically springiness birth."

The state besides promised to reappraisal absorption actions "once the last grade of the occurrence and interaction to the wood are known."

Any aboriginal caribou scope absorption plans "will equilibrium the needs of situation and colonisation protections for boreal caribou with quality improvement crossed the landscape," a spokesperson said successful the statement.