Caribou

“Thirty-four of the 43 major herds that scientists have studied worldwide in the last decade are in decline, with caribou numbers plunging 57 percent from their historical peaks . . . oil and gas development, mining, logging, and hydropower projects in the Far North are impinging on the caribou's range; and, though not a major factor, hunting is further depleting already beleaguered caribou populations. In the 1.6 million years that caribou have roamed the northern hemisphere, their populations have risen and fallen with cycles of glaciation and deglaciation. . . . But what concerns many caribou experts now is the rapid, global decline of caribou...in the face of precipitous warming."

Historic Population

The abundance of wild caribou has declined since historic times (Bergerud 1974, Syroechkovski 2000, Festa-Bianchet et al. 2011), though historic estimates  for certain regions are unclear. In Russia, in the late 1800s, there may have been 5 million caribou which rapidly declined (T. Sipko pers. comm. 2015) and in North America, 3 to 5 million during the time of settlement (Bergerud, 1978).