Seven Calves Born in Jasper Effort to Save Endangered Caribou

Jasper National Park is seeing early results from a new conservation breeding program aimed at rebuilding one of Canada’s most endangered caribou populations.

According to the park’s 2025 annual report, Parks Canada relocated 10 caribou from within Jasper National Park to a newly constructed Caribou Conservation Breeding Centre near Athabasca Falls, forming the founding population for a long-term effort to rebuild southern mountain caribou herds.

Seven calves were born at the facility in June, which the organization described as an encouraging start.

“In June, seven healthy caribou calves were born and bonded with their mothers in an encouraging start to the program’s first calving season,” said Parks Canada.

Caribou born through the program will eventually be released at around 14 to 16 months of age to join the Tonquin herd in Jasper National Park. This herd is estimated to have between 43 and 50 animals, including about a dozen breeding females.

The Tonquin herd is one of the park’s last two remaining southern mountain caribou populations. The Maligne and Banff herds have disappeared, while the last three known caribou from the Brazeau herd were relocated to Parks Canada’s Conservation Breeding Centre in March 2025.

Caribou are considered an indicator species for the health of high-elevation ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains. Their decline can signal broader environmental pressures across the Bow Valley region. The species relies on mature, undisturbed forests and feeds mainly on lichen during winter. Those habitats have been altered by decades of landscape change, including development outside park boundaries and shifts in predator populations. Without intervention, Parks Canada says the remaining small herds would likely continue to decline.

To address this, the conservation breeding centre raises young caribou in a protected environment before releasing them back into the wild. Wild animals are captured during winter months and relocated to the facility, where breeding occurs during the fall rut and calves are born in early summer.

The program is expected to build a breeding herd of up to 40 adult females over several years. Parks Canada’s long-term goal is to rebuild the Tonquin herd to about 200 animals and restore 300 to 400 caribou across Jasper’s historic ranges. But recovery will take time, as females typically give birth to only one calf each year and small herds remain vulnerable to predators and environmental pressures.

The recovery effort is being developed in collaboration with Indigenous Nations connected to the Jasper region. Indigenous partners have helped plan the breeding program, taken part in fieldwork and collected lichen, a key winter food source for caribou, through community programs.

“Parks Canada’s Caribou Conservation Breeding Program is collaborating with Indigenous Nations from the Jasper Indigenous Forum, combining Indigenous knowledge and Western science to facilitate the growth of the Tonquin herd,” said Shelley Calliou, co-chair of Jasper National Park’s Caribou Relations Group and cultural advisor with Kelly Lake Cree Nation.

Parks Canada will continue monitoring caribou populations in 2026 and beyond using aerial surveys and DNA sampling to track trends and measure the success of recovery efforts.