Porcupine caribou

The Porcupine caribou is a herd of the barren-ground caribou found in Alaska, United States, and Yukon and the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is included in the subspecies called the barren-ground caribou (R. tarandus groenlandicus). The Porcupine caribou was first named Rangifer ogilviensis Millais, 1915 after the Ogilvie Mountains, part of its Yukon winter range. It has also been known as Grant's caribou (R. a. granti; subsequently R. t. granti). Grant's caribou was described as a small, pale form occupying a limited range at the west end of the Alaska Peninsula and nearby islands. Originally described as Rangifer granti (Allen, 1902), it was brought under barren-ground caribou as R. arcticus granti because its size and form were closer to the barren-ground type than to the larger, darker montane forms in Alaska. When Banfield revised the Rangifer genus, bringing all reindeer and caribou under Rangifer tarandus, he gave the subspecies name granti to all the caribou in Alaska and some in Yukon, thus greatly expanding its range. Subsequently, taxonomists comparing Alaskan or Yukon migratory barren-ground caribou with those of mainland Canada labelled their Alaska/Yukon samples as R. t. granti. Youngman (1975) re-assigned it to Canada/Alaska barren-ground caribou, R. tarandus groenlandicus after Banfield's (1961) name change. Because Geist (1998), and others, could find no morphological features to distinguish Alaskan from Canadian barren-ground caribou, granti was not accepted in the authoritative reference work, Mammalian Species of the World (Grubb, Artiodactyla in Wilson and Reeder 2005) Caribou geneticists agree that Alaska/Yukon migratory barren-ground and Canadian barren-ground caribou are barely distinguishable (e.g., Cronin et al. 2005; Yannic et al. 2013). Further history of the name granti is given in Reindeer. In a stunning sequel, caribou geneticists discovered that caribou still living at the western end of the Alaskan Peninsula and nearby islands—which contains the type locality of Rangifer granti Allen 1902—are genetically distinct from, and do not interbreed with, nearby forms of caribou. Its range encompasses the type locality designated by Allen 1902. Thus, R. a. granti was rediscovered in its original, limited range and its type species in the American Museum of Natural History remains valid. A recent revision returns the Porcupine and other herds of barren-ground caribou to R. arcticus arcticus Richardson 1829. ==Range==

The Porcupine herd range covers , from the calving grounds, the Porcupine River after which they are named, to "the river valleys and slopes in the Ogilvie and Richardson Mountains in the Yukon and the southern Brooks Range in Alaska." In the spring the pregnant cows move "northeast from the Alaskan winter ranges or north and northwest from the Canadian winter ranges. If snowmelt is early, they will then move westward along the north slope of the Brooks Range into Alaska." is the longest of any land mammal on earth. ==Management==

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Canadian wildlife agencies, and local aboriginal peoples cooperatively manage the Porcupine herd. The Porcupine Caribou Management Board (PCMB) advisory board was established under the Porcupine Caribou Management Agreement in 1985, whose members include representatives from the Gwich'in Tribal Council, Na-cho Nyäk Dün, Vuntut Gwitchin, Government of Yukon, Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in, Inuvialuit Game Council, the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Government of Canada. The PCMB publish an annual Porcupine Caribou Harvest Report. In their February 2018 report they recorded that a 2017 photocensus (survey) estimated a mean of 218,457 caribou (95% CI = 202,106 to 234,808) caribou, indicative of an increasing trend from 2010 to 2017, from 169,000 to about 218,000. Both the Ivvavik National Park and Vuntut National Park border the ANWR. The treaty required an impact assessment and required that where activity in one country is "likely to cause significant long-term adverse impact on the Porcupine Caribou Herd or its habitat, the other Party will be notified and given an opportunity to consult prior to final decision". Herd size Unlike many other Rangifer species, subspecies and their ecotypes, the Porcupine herd is stable at relatively high numbers. Some barren-ground caribou herds have "declined more than 90 per cent from historic averages", causing the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), to sound the alarm. According to an aerial count reported in July 2017, the size of the Porcupine herd had increased to "between 202,000 and 235,000 animals, nearly twice the number of animals recorded at a low point in 2001. A previous peak population occurred in 1989 with 178,000 animals and was followed by a decline by 2001 to 123,000. A recovery was observed in 2010 with an increase to 169,000 animals. ==Potential threats to the Porcupine herd==

Climate change and the increased frequency of extreme weather events, such as unprecedented late slow melting, negatively affect the Porcupine herd. As a result there was "very high early calf mortality." "Caribou exposed to industrial development shift away from the pipelines and roads." In 2001, some biologists feared development in the Refuge would "push caribou into the foothills, where calves would be more prone to predation." In their 2005 report, Russell and McNeil reiterated concerns that new calving areas would make the herd more vulnerable, as area 1002 provides a much higher quality of diet conditions than the alternatives in Canada. ==Indigenous peoples==

The Porcupine caribou are a valued resource as primary sustenance to indigenous peoples in Alaska and northern Canada. Gwichʼin, a First Nations/Alaska Native people traditionally built their communities to align with the caribou's migration patterns. The Inupiat, the Inuvialuit, the Hän and the Northern Tutchone also hunt caribou from this herd on a regular basis. == Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ==

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) covers of the northern Alaskan coast, in northeast Alaska with The National Petroleum Reserve to the West, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with area 1002 to the east. On December 22, 2017, President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a provision that opened the 1002 area of ANWR to oil and gas drilling, into law. The Act contains provisions that would open 1.5million acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. Opening the Arctic Refuge to drilling "unleashed a torrent of opposition from conservationists and scientists." Democrats and environmentalist groups such as the Wilderness Society criticized the Republican effort. The subsection on the coastal plain, known as the "1002 area" is located between the Brooks Range and the Beaufort Sea. The plain "stretches west from the Yukon border more than a hundred miles, a flat expanse of tundra laced with tussock wetlands and braided rivers." ==Ivvavik National Park==

, Alaska Ivvavik National Park protects a portion of the calving grounds of the Porcupine herd and restricts the number of people who may visit annually. During the calving in May, caribou are at their most vulnerable. Caribou management calls for preservation of calving grounds. Large portions of the calving grounds have been protected in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, United States, and Ivvavik National Park and Vuntut National Park in Yukon, Canada. Central Arctic caribou herd In 2001, proponents of the development of the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk, which would be approximately west of the refuge, argued that the Central Arctic caribou herd had increased its numbers "in spite of several hundred miles of gravel roads and more than a thousand miles of elevated pipe." However, the Central Arctic herd is much smaller than the Porcupine herd and has a range that is much larger. == See also ==