I recently spent a few nights winter camping in the hope of tracking down some Central Mountain Caribou in Northern BC. Canada. After seeing fresh footprints in the snow not far from camp, we finally located some of these amazing animals on the morning we were due to head home. The situation has been described as dire for the Central Mountain Caribou population by the Federal Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). Numbers of Central Mountain Caribou across Alberta and B.C declined by 60 per cent between 2004 and 2014 to just over 500 mature individuals in 11 herds. The shots above and below are of a large male stag.
Mountain Caribou of Northern BC have been in a steep decline since the 1990’s. Their decline is a result of direct habitat loss along with increased predation associated with ecosystem change from land alteration. While they are listed as threatened federally in Canada COSEWIC has recommended that mountain caribou be listed as endangered. This particular herd was counted via aerial survey at 120 in 2007 and had dropped to 45 by 2012. It seems the implementation of a caribou management plan in 2013 has potentially stabilised the population; however there has yet to be any significant increase with the herd being counted at 50 in 2015. Some other herds such as the Maligne heard in Jasper National Park in Alberta have dropped from over 100 animals to less than 5 in the same time frame and are said to be now below recovery levels.
The shots above and below are of some female Caribou. Unlike deer and moose; females also grow small antlers each year.
I took all the shots on this post with a Canon EOS 6D Mark II using a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at between f/4.5 and f/8.
We did spot a few baby Caribou on the trip. They obviously represent the future of the species and provide some hope that mountain Caribou will be peaking though the forest for many generations to come.
Rob Downie
Love Life, Love Photography
All images in this post were taken by and remain the Copyright of Robert Downie - http://www.robertdowniephotography.com
Amazing photos! Great to see the snow still on the antlers!!
Thanks ; Very kind of you.
nice photos. i wonder how did he take those photos from so close
Hi. I took the shots while snowshoeing through the forest with a 400mm lens. 400mm is about an 8x soom (if you take 50mm as historal baseline for a normal lens). Rob
thanks for explaining. but i didn't understand because i have literally no knowledge about camera and lens and distance.... those are great photos
Ok. For some perspective they are about 20m (65ft) away.
:)
Oh nice, that sounds like such a good adventure, snowshoeing through the forest to find caribou! :D i would like to try that one day. I hope there are some left. Your photos are great and I really enjoyed the whole the post; you put some good effort into making it. Followed you.
Thanks. Very kind of you. You should try snowshoeing ; it’s heaps of fun.
your pictures are really amazing, no kidding!
You have gone great lengths just to capture these photos. You deserve more followers!
Thanks. That is very kind of you !
Great post. Highly informative with some beautiful photos. It would of been so nice to have been around these great beasts.
Thanks for such a kind comment !
nice photos . i think it's took a long time
Thanks. It does take some time and planning.
Awesome photographer has been very nice thanks to give you such a beautiful photo among us
Thanks. Too kind!
The second and last images are my favourites... I love the feelings and atmosphere that you manage to capture.
Thanks ! Appreciate your support
Some great wild life photography! Thx a lot for the pictures and your effort. I really love the third picture, the different layers in the depth of the picture. Just great!
Thanks. Appreciate you taking the time to have a look through in depth.
Beautiful photos. I would also like to spend some time in places like this :)
Thanks. Its quite rare now to see the mountain Caribou
Fantastic shots per usual! Great work!
Thanks. Very kind of you.
WOw, Stunning !!👍🏻
Thanks
Amazing photographs! You really captured these beautiful animals. I especially like the last one I like the blurry effect. Astonishing angles!
Appreciate the detailed comment. Thanks for stopping by !
Beautiful pics !!
Thanks
These are gorgeous! I can't even imagine running into them while camping. It must have been majestic.
Thanks. They are majestic animals for sure. Lets hope they pull though.
What lovely animals. So sad they have lost some of their habitat!
Liked the shots of the 2 together (in that 3rd picture).. yet the magnificent stag ..in the 1st 2 Shots is certainly to be admired.
The Baby Caribou is oh 'so cute' -- and I hope there are MANY more to come, in the future..
Take care, & thanx 4 the inspired shots.
Thanks. It is so nice when someone writes a detailed comment. Thanks for stopping by.
amazingly osm
Thanks
#save central mountain caribou
Yes indeed
Wow! These Mountain Caribou are beautiful. It was my first time to get to know about Mountain Caribou. Thanks @intrepidphotos
Appreciate the kind comment. They are beautiful creatures .
Wow such beautiful pictures of these animals. I never know they existed. Thanks for a lovely work @intrepidphotos
Thanks. Glad that you took the time to read about them.
Breathtaking.
Thanks
What a beautiful magestic creature and fabulous pictures amazing.
Thanks ! Very kind of you.
You're a talented photographer @intrepidphotos! This is an incredibly high quality post.
That's a great example of using foliage to frame an animal in the last image there. Merry Christmas!
Thanks . And have a great festive season. Rob
Catching these moments should be hard. That's amazing.
Thanks. It certainly takes a bit of planning.
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Wow. Thats cool to know.
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Is this from one trip or do you go and find and visit this heard often?
These shots are actually from two sessions. The first was quite the blizzard which was obviously the first two shots with the snow falling heavily (snow intensity is always worse in real life than on camera using telephoto to look around it). The next were taken about a week later. We go up there and camp in our truck camper and wait until we see some tracks in the snow. So each of these trips was a couple of nights camping over the weekend.