Technical Reports

The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation is a set of principles that, collectively applied, has led to the form, function, and successes of wildlife conservation and management in the United States and Canada. This technical review documents the history and development of these principles, and evaluates current and potential future challenges to their application. Describing the Model as North American is done in a conceptual, not a geographical, context. Wildlife conservation and management in Mexico developed at a different time and under different circumstances than in the U.S.

This technical review focuses on the management of large mammalian carnivores and their associated impacts on prey populations and public perception across North America. Management of large mammalian carnivores involves finding a balance between maintaining viable carnivore populations, safeguarding human welfare and property, and satisfying the needs of stakeholders in a cost-effective manner. Human expansion into carnivore habitat has been a major cause of increased conflict and mortality for predators. Societal attitudes towards these species are complex and variable.

After its long period of increase through the latter part of the twentieth century, the Newfoundland caribou commenced a rapid decline beginning in about 1996 and has continued to decline, though at a much reduced pace, ever since. In recent years calf survival has improved and, in combination with reduced hunting pressure, has led to a substantial improvement in herd prospects but insufficient as of yet to stabilize population decline. Positive growth cannot be expected until calf survival increases to 40-45%.

Caribou populations are declining globally. Newfoundland’s caribou population is not designated as "At- Risk", but they have declined from nearly 100,000 animals in the late 1990s to just over 38,000 animals in 2008. Population modeling suggests that Newfoundland caribou could be assessed as "At-Risk" by 2012. Ongoing research and monitoring efforts suggest that the population decline was partially attributable to high levels of calf mortality.

With the striking exception of insular Newfoundland, woodland caribou are listed as Threatened or Endangered throughout North America. In the last decade, however, insular Newfoundland has experienced a dramatic downturn in its caribou population. The Caribou Data Synthesis was initiated in 1996 in an effort to describe and understand the dynamics of caribou in insular Newfoundland.

Caribou Rangifer tarandus populations are declining globally, and all woodland caribou in Canada are designated as "At-Risk" except for the Newfoundland population. However, Newfoundland’s caribou population has declined from nearly 94,000 animals in the late 1990s to just under 34,000 in 2012 and a change in the "At-Risk" status from the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) is very possible.

To understand and address the challenge of Newfoundland's declining caribou population, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador implemented a five-year Caribou Strategy for the island, beginning in 2008. The Caribou Strategy is a comprehensive research and management program to improve ecosystem-level knowledge of caribou and their predators, and test means to mitigate predation mortality on calves.

The Newfoundland woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) population has declined by over 60% in the last decade. In 2008, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador announced a five-year Caribou Strategy that would expand on the findings of earlier efforts to form an ecosystem-based analysis of local caribou population dynamics. The Strategy is research-intensive and focuses on caribou and predator ecology, predator-prey dynamics, predator-prey-habitat interactions, predator control methodologies, non-predation factors, and human dimensions.

1. The woodland caribou population on the island of Newfoundland has declined by more than 60% since the mid-1990s. Several individual herds have declined more than 90%. Overall, these declines have created a concern for the future status of caribou in Newfoundland.

While unrestrained killing of wildlife for market purposes was the main force that endangered North America’s wildlife, regulated hunting became the founding influence and remains the backbone of the world’s longest standing movement for wildlife protection, use, and enhancement. This social and political movement eventually coalesced into a systematic arrangement of conventions, policies, laws, and institutions that we recognize today as the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. Wildlife abundance in America today is often taken for granted.