Population dynamics and critical habitat of woodland caribou in the boreal shield of Saskatchewan

林地驯鹿在加拿大的北方森林中被列为受威胁。萨斯喀彻温省北方盾牌的驯鹿面临着高水平的森林火灾，但暴露在一些最低水平的人类活动在该国。他们也是研究最少的人群。事实上，萨斯喀彻温省北方盾牌是加拿大环境部目前确定的51个驯鹿范围中唯一一个在关键栖息地的现状、趋势和定义方面缺乏数据的地区。启动对这一特殊群体的研究具有省和国家的重要性。除了提供也许是我们最后一次机会来研究林地驯鹿的生态在一个大的，自然调节的人口（作为基准参考该国其他地区），驯鹿的当地地位的不确定性有重要的影响，生活和工作在萨斯喀彻温省的人。在缺乏数据的情况下，萨斯喀彻温省北方盾牌的社区和公司面临着监管方面的延误和开发投资的成本，并且在如何减轻活动以允许根据《濒危物种法》采取可接受的做法方面几乎没有指导。特别令人关切的是，这对北方社区发展通道和基础设施以及可持续发展自然资源（特别是开采黄金和铀;后者在加拿大其他地方没有，占世界产量的17%）的影响。我们拟议的研究旨在减少不确定性驯鹿在萨斯喀彻温省和加拿大经济的一个重要地区的地位，同时确定新的手段，以确定物种的关键栖息地。我们的主要目标是了解驯鹿栖息地和种群如何应对高自然但低人为干扰的条件，以及我们如何通过将个体驯鹿的生存和繁殖与其独特的环境经历（包括栖息地，火灾，捕食风险）相关来定义关键栖息地。我们提出了一个5年的计划，建立在基础和应用生态学研究林地驯鹿栖息地在北方萨斯喀彻温省，驯鹿的人口和行为生态，以及他们的天敌（狼和黑熊）。

Woodland caribou are classified as Threatened in the boreal forests of Canada. Caribou of the Saskatchewan Boreal Shield are faced with high levels of forest fire, but are exposed to some of the lowest levels of human activity in the country. They are also among the least studied of populations. In fact, the Saskatchewan Boreal Shield is the only one of 51 caribou ranges currently identified as data deficient by Environment Canada with respect to status, trend, and definition of critical habitat. Initiating research on this special population is of both provincial and national importance. In addition to providing perhaps our last opportunity to study the ecology of woodland caribou in a large, naturally regulated population (serving as a baseline reference for the rest of the country), uncertainty as to the local status of caribou has important implications for the people that live and work in Saskatchewan. In the absence of data, communities and companies of the Saskatchewan Boreal Shield face regulatory delays and costs to investment with respect to development, and little guidance as to how activities must be mitigated to allow for acceptable practices under the Species at Risk Act. Of particular concern are implications for developing access and infrastructure for northern communities and sustainably developing natural resources (especially mining gold and uranium; the latter occurs nowhere else in Canada and accounts for 17% of the world's production). Our proposed research is aimed at reducing uncertainty as to the status of caribou in a region fundamentally important to the Saskatchewan and Canadian economies while identifying novel means by which to define critical habitat for species. Our primary goals are to understand how caribou habitat and populations respond to conditions of high natural but low anthropogenic disturbance, and how we can define critical habitat by relating survival and reproduction of individual caribou to their unique experiences of the environment (including habitat, fire, predation risk). We present a 5-year plan founded in basic and applied ecology to study woodland caribou habitat in northern Saskatchewan, the population and behavioural ecology of caribou, and that of their natural predators (wolves and black bears).