Distribution and observed trends of wild Rangifer populations throughout the circumpolar Arctic (from The Circum Arctic Rangifer Monitoring and Assessment Network, CARMA). Note: Wild boreal forest reindeer have not been mapped by CARMA and thus are not represented here. Currently wild reindeer and caribou have declined by about 33% since populations (herds) peaked in the 1990s and early 2000s (3.8 million compared to 5.6 million) which followed almost universal increases in the 1970s and 1980s. The declines are likely natural cycles, driven by continental and perhaps global atmospheric changes in combination with changing harvest practices and industrial developments. Regionally, there is a tendency for herds to show a measure of synchrony in their phases of increase and decrease. For example, currently all seven of the major migratory tundra herds in Canada’s Northwest Territories and Nunavut are declining from highs in the late 1980s/early 1990s, with four of these herds having decreased by 75% or more in 2009 than in the 1990s. In neighboring Alaska, the two larger herds are declining including the well-known Porcupine herd, while two smaller coastal herds are still increasing from the 1970s.

Year: 2010

From collection: Species distribution maps

Cartographer: Hugo Ahlenius