By The Canadian Press

Parks Canada is considering a captive caribou breeding program, though experts warn the plan is risky

Nov 2, 2020 | 8:13 AM

EDMONTON – Parks Canada is preparing a plan to round up female caribou from nearly vanished herds and pen them in a captive breeding program to replenish others.

The move is being made as a last-ditch effort to prevent the animals from disappearing from the landscape entirely, as some herds have already done.

As draft of the plan obtained by The Canadian Press says up to 40 female caribou would be penned in a facility in Jasper National Park in western Alberta.

They could produce up to 20 calves a year, enough to repopulate Jasper’s caribou herds in about 10 years.

But Jasper conservation manager Dave Argument acknowledges there are risks.

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Young calves reared in a pen may not have the savvy to escape predators.

As well, he expects some public pushback over taking animals from the wild and penning them up for the rest of their lives.

But he says this may be the last chance to keep caribou in the park.