fRI Research
June 2020
18-ERPC-07 / 19-ERPC-05
Executive Summary
Woodland caribou are declining across their range and decades of research show that habitat disturbance linked to industrial activities is the ultimate cause of caribou decline. The conversion of mature forests into early seral stands with abundant forage has resulted in more moose, deer, and elk in caribou ranges. Moose are a preferred prey of wolves and predation risk for caribou increases where moose and caribou overlap. The goals of this project were to i) assess moose response to attributes of habitat disturbances, and ii) build resource selection models that could be useful to forest managers. Identifying broad-scale landscape attributes and fine-scale habitat characteristics that are preferred by moose could help focus restoration activities within caribou ranges to efficiently reduce moose numbers, and wolf predation risk for caribou.