AILSA CHANG, HOST:
There was a time not too long ago when people living on Alaska's Bering Sea coast could find dozens or even hundreds of caribou passing just miles from their homes. The animals were a reliable food source in an area with few grocery stores, accessible only by boat or plane. But the days at plentiful caribou in the area are largely over. The herd in southwestern Alaska has declined by about 90% in the last few decades, from as many as 200,000 animals in the late 1990s to less than 20,000 now. And state wildlife officials have adopted a controversial solution to try to turn that trend around. Max Graham wrote about that for High Country News. He lives in Anchorage and joins us now. Welcome.
MAX GRAHAM: Thanks, Ailsa. It's great to be here.
CHANG: Great to have you. So let's pick up the story where we left off. What was the plan that state officials adopted to save the caribou?
GRAHAM: Yeah. So the plan really simply involved flying over the caribou's calving grounds in Western Alaska, looking for predators - wolves and bears - to shoot. And the idea being that wolves and bears eat caribou calves and that in order to help the population rebound, you know, removing those predators from the calving grounds would give calves an opportunity to grow up into adult caribou, and fewer predators would lead to more caribou down the road. And so far, officials have killed almost 200 bears and 20 wolves over the past three years.
CHANG: Wow. Does this strategy of hunting down caribou predators actually address any of the root causes for the caribou population decline?
GRAHAM: Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, that's kind of like the crux of the debate, and there is a robust debate about this. I mean, caribou populations naturally boom and bust, and this particular herd got to this really high level in the '90s. And some scientists just think, like, that led to overgrazing, and sort of there wasn't, you know, enough food for all those animals, and so just sort of naturally the herd declined. What kind of was concerning was that the decline continued for, you know, two decades. The herd wasn't rebounding.
And there are a lot of different theories. Like, is it nutrition? Is it disease? Is it - you know, is it climate change? Is it predation? And killing predators or removing predators is, like, one of the few things wildlife managers can really tangibly do. And so that was, I think, one thing that sort of made it an attractive solution.
CHANG: But is there any sense that this strategy is working, this strategy of culling predators?
GRAHAM: Yeah, so it's been in place for a few years, and the Department of Fish and Game, they point to a recent increase in the herd's numbers, and that rebound has correlated with this management effort. Critics of the program say, like, it's still too early to tell. They want, you know, better research and evidence. So that question is still debated as well.
CHANG: I know that you talked to a number of Alaska Native people when you were reporting this out. These are people who hunted this herd before the population declined. What is their opinion on the state's strategy right now?
GRAHAM: Yeah. There's considerable support from Alaska Native hunters in the region, you know, some of the people who, you know, live closest to the herd and have depended on it. One of the biggest tribal governments in the region has passed a resolution in support of it. That said, like, more broadly, some Alaska Native folks, wildlife experts, also don't agree with this and think that killing bears is not a solution that reflects traditional values and that it sort of runs counter to Alaska Native traditions.
CHANG: Max Graham - his piece for High Country News is called "As A Caribou Herd Crashed, Wildlife Managers Turned To Killing Predators." Thanks so much for joining us.
GRAHAM: Thank you, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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