A new study overturns the conclusions of an enormously influential paper in 2019 that examined various management actions to slow the decline of endangered mountain caribou herds from BC and Alberta.
UVic Raincoast Research Chair and conservation scientist Chris Darimont collaborated with colleagues from the University of Alberta and UBC Okanagan in re-analysing the data from the 2019 study.
By examining a previously neglected (but fundamental) statistical step, the researchers revealed a strikingly different result from the earlier work. They found that culling wolves and penning caribou had no detectable effect on caribou populations.
Research garners media attention
The new study garnered significant coverage, including in The Guardian and a Canadian Press story which appeared in the front sections of both The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail.
Continue reading at University of Victoria.
Image via Lee E. Harding.