A caribou's loyalty to home can become a liability after disturbance
WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
GPS records from 331 boreal caribou across 667,000 square kilometres show that fidelity to familiar low-disturbance ranges was associated with lower mortality. Remaining faithful to severely disturbed ranges, especially regenerating harvest areas, was instead associated with increased mortality; recent forest disturbance also prompted range shifts.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Conservation needs to consider the possibility that past habitat familiarity can become a liability. A caribou range remains mapped as occupied even while its function as a safe home deteriorates; connected refuges matter alongside static protection maps.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
An observational survival and telemetry analysis cannot establish every mortality mechanism or prove that inducing dispersal improves survival.
SOURCE
Landscape Ecology — caribou telemetry research (2026)
View original evidence ↗
Tracking 331 boreal caribou links site fidelity with survival—but the direction depends on forest disturbance.
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