Supplemental Feeding of Kennedy Siding Caribou Project

Supplemental Feeding of Kennedy Siding Caribou Project

Doug uses camera traps at feeding stations (currently in year 6) to census caribou in the Kennedy Siding Herd in central British Columbia. Photographs allow him to identify each caribou by their unique antler morphology. The process needs to be repeated annually because antlers are cast and have a different structure when regrown the next year. He also points cameras toward a platform scale reader to record the identity and weights of individuals. Photographs provide a precise (hopefully exact) count of the number of caribou in the herd by age (calves and adults) and sex. Decades of radio-collared cow movements support the assumption that emigration and immigration is zero.