Unique B.C. caribou feeding program bolstering at-risk population

A unique feeding program for an at-risk B.C. caribou herd appears to have helped the population more than double its numbers over the last decade.

The program is spearheaded by Doug Heard, a retired wildlife biologist who formerly worked for the provincial government, and takes place in Kennedy Siding, a 223-hectare section of critical habitat for threatened woodland caribou located about 200 kilometres north of Prince George.

The concept is pretty simple.

Heard, or a technician from the McLeod Lake Indian Band, distributes nutritional pellets in a series of covered feeding troughs in the Kennedy Siding area, at the base of the Rocky Mountains, about 30 kilometres southeast of Mackenzie, B.C.

The pellets are a combination of corn and grains optimized for caribou that are, according to Heard, easily digestible and highly nutritious.

While speaking to CBC from the project site, a couple of caribou casually snack within metres of Heard, although he says some animals are wary of him and other caribou and like to keep their distance.

"I spread out the food and spread out the feeders so different personalities of caribou will all get some food," said Heard. "It appears to be working."

Heard realized about 10 years ago that the Kennedy Siding herd was in trouble and started the supplemental feeding project as a way to help increase the declining population.

Data from Heard shows that the herd had 64 caribou in 2013 and that number has more than doubled to 132 in 2023.

"We have an increase in the fraction of calves, so we are getting 25 per cent calves in the population, [which] is higher than average so we know the population is growing," said Heard.

According to the McLeod Lake Indian Band, the Kennedy Siding caribou herd was declining about nine per cent a year before the feeding program began. The band's program website says the Kennedy Siding caribou herd increased by 16 per cent each year from 2014 to 2022.

The B.C. government has also carried out wolf culling programs in the South Peace region since 2015 to improve survival rates for caribou herds, including the Kennedy Siding group.

According to the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, a total of 1,429 wolves were culled through an aerial reduction program between 2015 and 2022.

The program was renewed for another five years in the winter of 2021-2022.

The ministry says that without predator reduction, caribou herds will continue to decline and be at risk of dying out. 

Heard analyzed data after the first six years of feeding caribou and says wolf removal and his program have reduced population decline by 16 per cent.

"It looks like feeding is contributing about three per cent of that 16-per-cent growth so it's having some impact it appears and we are doing that by comparing this population to adjacent populations that aren't being fed," said Heard.

Heard is also using wildlife cameras triggered by movement, and photographs to keep track of population numbers and the age and sex composition of the group.

He also collects hair and fecal samples so they can be DNA-tested to determine genealogy.

Heard delights in the work, saying it is both personally and scientifically satisfying to work on something with community support and successful results that puts him close to the caribou he so cares about on a regular basis.

"It's just fun to be close to the animals and be able to see the individual personalities and learn new things," said Heard.

Funding for the project comes from the provincial and Canadian government, along with the McLeod Lake Indian Band.