Caribou doing well in woods

The latest attempt to re-establish a caribou herd in Maine is sailing along, according to a spokesman for the project, who said Sunday that much of the pack is staying together, and some of the pregnant females appear to be searching for an area in which to give birth.

“It’s going well,” said Richard B. Anderson of the Maine Caribou Project. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”

Anderson said that some of the caribou are crossing over between packs, and about a dozen are living within five miles of where they were released about three weeks ago. So far, he said, none of the 20 caribou released have been killed by predators, although biologists keeping watch on the herd reported that prints in snow recently showed that some caribou had crossed bear tracks.

A couple of the caribou, he said, traveled north about 20 miles before returning to the pack.

“They seem to be able to find each other pretty well,” Anderson said.

Radio collars placed on each animal have also been working well, and researchers have been tracking the caribou by airplane two or three times a week, as well as monitoring their progress by ground searches, Anderson said.

The herd was released into the wilderness of northern Maine April 22, and represented the latest in a series of efforts to re-establish a herd in Maine. Ten of the 12 caribou released in the wilderness park last year died of attacks by predators, disease and other causes.

The caribou released last month include those kept at an enclosure at the University of Maine in Orono for the last three years. About two dozen caribou rounded up in Newfoundland in 1986 were trucked to Maine as part of the latest reintroduction project. The private project expects to receive as many as 75 additional caribou from Newfoundland, beginning with 25 later this year. Separate shipments of 25 each are planned during each of the next two years.