Go where you know: range expansion and fidelity in mountain caribou following eight years of maternity penning

Abstract

Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) are designated as Threatened or Endangered in Canada, with many populations being at risk of extirpation. Approaches for caribou conservation can be both invasive and expensive. For example, maternity penning involves the relocation of pregnant females to a predator‐free fenced enclosure where they are held for 20–22 weeks. This activity greatly reduces the risk of predation for adult females and their dependent calves, but requires the construction, maintenance, and monitoring of a penning facility as well as the risk associated with the capture and transport of adult caribou. With only four maternity pen trials within the last decade, there has been little study of the potential influence of maternity penning on the distribution and habitat use of caribou after release. We used Brownian Bridge Movement Models to examine changes in range fidelity and overall range use of the Klinse‐Za caribou herd in north‐central British Columbia, Canada, following eight years of maternity penning. We generated annual home range utilisation distributions and examined the space use of caribou among years and between penned and unpenned animals, as well as pre‐penning and post‐penning time periods. We found that following penning, caribou shifted distribution to areas near maternity pens and expanded their overall use of range. However, caribou did not shift their distribution relative to the elevation of their mountainous habitats. Our results suggest that caribou can adapt to capture and forced displacement without altering patterns of instinctual or learned habitat use.