Bathurst

There is no management board for this herd, but a Bathurst Caribou Advisory Committee has recently been established to collaboratively develop a management plan. The Committee also helps to support and implement a range plan for the herd developed  by a Working Group of 21 organizations including industry, environmental groups, Indigenous governments, renewable resource boards and territorial governments including representatives from Nunavut, NWT and northern Saskatchewan. The Bathurst herd has suffered the steepest and deepest decline of all the migratory barren-ground herds. It went from a high of 450,000 caribou in 1986 to an estimated 8,200 caribou in 2018, a decrease of more than 98%. In 2021, the herd declined further to an estimated 6,240. The governments of Nunavut and NWT recently agreed to better work together to manage the Bathurst and Bluenose-East herds.

Hunting of this herd is now completely disallowed in the NWT. A mobile conservation zone has been set up that follows the movement of the herd, and no caribou hunting is allowed within that zone. Nunavut still allows for 30 animals a year to be hunted.

The relative importance of the various factors leading to this steep decline are still unclear. Natural cycles amplified by changes to habitat, climate, predation, and hunting are likely causes. One additional factor has recently emerged;  some cows fitted with tracking collars were observed to have moved to the neighboring Beverly/Ahiak herd’s calving ground in 2018 and 2019, and again in 2021.