Recovery of the Chisana caribou herd in the Alaska/Yukon borderlands

Despite the success of captive-rearing in dramatically increasing survival of calves in the program, the contribution of captive-rearing to recovery of the CCH was limited by the relatively small proportion of pregnant females from the herd that could be reasonably maintained in the captive-rearing pen. [...] In response to concerns from local communities and First Nations over the fate of the Chisana Caribou Herd (CCH), a small declining population of woodland caribou, we developed and evaluated a novel captive-rearing approach as a means of increasing calf survival and stabilizing or increasing the population growth rate of a declining caribou population. [...] We thought that if caribou calves were born and raised through the neonatal period in the protected confines of captivity, then we could increase the number of calves in the population and associated population growth rates. [...] METHODS Study Population and Area The CCH is a small herd that ranges along the borderlands of western Yukon and eastern Alaska, near the headwaters of the White River in the Nutzotin Mountains (Figure 1). [...] The later location was within the core winter and early summer range, which reduced transport times to the pen for captured animals, and put penned caribou closer to where the rest of their herd normally would be at the time of release from the pen.