Scientific contributions outweigh losses of Caribou Project

Guest Column

Caribou Project officials believe that predation and brainworm are the two major obstacles to overcome in restoring caribou to Maine.

According to bear biologist Craig McLaughlin and studies performed by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, bear densities are estimated to be about three bears per five square miles in the Spectacle Pond area, north of Baxter State Park. Bear densities are likely to be similar in the vicinity of Baxter Park. Four of the 10 caribou that died last summer in Baxter Park died of bear predation. Therefore, it remains to be seen if bear predation will be a significant enough mortality factor to prevent the success of reintroduction of the caribou to Maine.

Newfoundland caribou co-exist with areas of similar bear density, but bears kill up to 30 percent of the calves in some of these herds. Newfoundland bears are also a major source of mortality for adult caribou — even stags weighing up to 500 pounds.

Project officials recognize that the brainworm parasite will be their greatest hurdle to overcome in restoring caribou to Maine. Five of the 10 caribou that died last summer in Baxter State were found to have the brainworm, but the evidence is conclusive that at least three of these animals acquired the parasite in captivity — not in the wild.

The project has recently had problems with brainworm in the captive herd. From their studies, they have learned that a population of 50 deer per square mile surrounds the University of Maine pens. This is 10 times greater than the deer population in northern Maine. About 60 percent of the deer in Orono and in Baxter Park harbor the brainworm parasite.

Aside from the five caribou that died last summer, three other caribou have died in captivity of the disease. This problem is not unique to Maine. The National Zoo in Front Royale, Md., had far more serious problems with brainworm when the disease was transmitted from wild deer around the zoo to endangered ungulates that had been brought from all over the world for captive breeding.

The Maine Caribou Project has utilized a number of techniques to attempt to combat the disease, including anthelmintic drugs, snail control in the pens, and building a snail barier (as the National Zoo did) around their facility.

Animal rights activists seem to be the major opposition to the caribou restoration effort. This is mainly because of the death of animals. However, animals die in all reintroduction projects. More than 100 peregrine falcons have been released in Maine since the early 1980s. Scientists estimate about 70 percent died before they could return to Maine to nest. To date, the project has been a great success, with four pairs returning to Maine to grace our skies and produce young.

The return of Atlantic Salmon to the Penobscot River has been hailed as one of the greatest conservation achievements of the century. Since 1967, more than 8.8 million salmon have been reintroduced into the river. However, on average, less than one percent ever return. Should these projects be deemed “cruelty to animals”?

The Maine Caribou Project is being conducted in a truly conscientious manner. Few reintroduction projects can demonstate the degree of study that is given to each released caribou and the wealth of scientific information that is being obtained. The project is designed to answer, once and for all, if woodland caribou can be returned to portions of their former range now occupied by white-tailed deer.

The Caribou Project has helped to fund, or secured funding, for two graduate student studies of parasites at the University of Maine. The information they have obtained to date has already been of great use for deer and moose management in Maine and will aid Minnesota biologists who are formulating plans for a similar reintroduction of caribou.

As man continues to drive more species to the brink of extinction, reintroduction projects wil become more important as tools for future wildlife conservationists. The Maine Caribou Project deserves to be commended for its diligence in conducting the reintroduction as a scientific experiment. Who knows how the data and techniques developed in this study will some day be applied to restore critically endangered species half-way around the globe.

Data collected from these studies has provided evidence that Maine moose co-exist in the same area with deer having brainworm. Few moose seem to be contracting the disease. Likewise, caribou on the Gaspe Peninsula, 150 miles from Maine, co-exist with deer of which about 39 percent have brainworm. Caribou with symptoms of the disease have never been observed. If this is so, the Caribou Project reasons that there is hope that caribou can co-exist with the white-tail deer in northern Maine where deer density is low.

Some Maine people continue to support the claim that caribou “left” Maine and that if they wanted to come back to Maine they would simpoy do so on their own. There is no scientific evidence to support this idea. Dr. Tom Bergerud, one of the continent’s most eminent caribou biologists, has reviewed the information on the historic demise of caribou from Maine, the Maritime Provinces, and the Great Lakes states. He has published several scientific papers providing evidence that overhunting, increased predation, and in some cases disease (brainworm) led to their demise in these areas.

It would not have been difficult to eradicate caribou from Maine. White-tail deer moved north from the coast in the mid-1800s in response to logging in northern Maine. Undoubtedly, some caribou died as a result of brainworm. Many accounts of caribou slaughters have been found in journals and diaries. Early settlers would not have had to kill all the caribou, but just enough to make it increasingly difficult for individuals to find others of their kind during the breeding season.

If caribou miraculously decided to leave Maine, where did they go? The last remnant of the New England and Maritime herds is now found on the Gaspe Peninsula, but number only 200 to 300, a vestige of the thousands of caribou that must have roamed this region. The passenger pigeon, timber wolf, sea mink, Labrador duck, and great auk all disappeared from Maine during the same era as the caribou. At the same time the great slaughter of the buffalo occurred on the Great Plains. Did they, too, just decide to leave or were they all extirpated at the hands of our forebears?

The Maine Caribou Project should be judged for its scientific contributions and its sincerity in wanting to do something positive for the state of Maine. There have been unrealistic expectations that their project would become an overnight success. Project leaders are the first to express disappointment over last summer’s results, but the information they have learned should help guide their future efforts. The project should be commended for honesty in reporting successes and failures and for its insistence in conducting reintroduction in a scientific manner.

Arthur E. Howell Jr. is the founder of a wildlife educational foundation, refuge and wildlife rehabilitation center at North Amity.