Subspecies of deer
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The migratory woodland caribou refers to two herds of "Rangifer tarandus" (known as caribou in North America) that are included in the migratory woodland ecotype of the subspecies Rangifer tarandus caribou or woodland caribou that live in Nunavik, Quebec, and Labrador: the Leaf River caribou herd (LRCH) and the George River caribou herd (GRCH) south of Ungava Bay. "Rangifer tarandus caribou" is further divided into three ecotypes: the migratory barren-ground ecotype, the mountain ecotype or woodland (montane) and the forest-dwelling ecotype (boreal woodland caribou). According to researchers, the "George River herd which morphologically and genetically belong to the woodland caribou subspecies, at one time represented the largest caribou herd in the world and migrating thousands of kilometers from boreal forest to open tundra, where most females calve within a three-week period. This behaviour is more like barren-ground caribou subspecies." They argued that "understanding ecotype in relation to existing ecological constraints and releases may be more important than the taxonomic relationships between populations." The migratory George River caribou herd travel thousands of kilometres moving from wintering grounds to calving grounds near the Inuit hamlet of Kangiqsualujjuaq, Nunavik (also known as George River hamlet). In Nunavik and Labrador, the caribou population varies considerably with their numbers peaking in the later decades of each of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. In 1984, about 10,000 caribou of the George River herd drowned during their bi-annual crossing of the Caniapiscau River during the James Bay Hydro Project flooding operation. The most recent decline at the turn of the 20th century caused much hardship for the Inuit and Cree communities of Nunavik, who hunt them for subsistence.
While the woodland caribou, "Rangifer tarandus caribou" (boreal population), boreal woodland caribou or boreal caribou, which is mainly sedentary, was assessed in May 2002 as threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), not all herds and populations are endangered. For example, the Gros Morne National Park sedentary herd in insular Newfoundland is not endangered.
Ecotypes.
Subspecies and ecotypes.
The subspecies of caribou ("Rangifer tarandus"), a medium-sized ungulate, inhabit boreal, montane and Arctic environments and "exhibit tremendous variation in ecology, genetics, behaviour and morphology." Most are found in Canada. Current classifications of "Rangifer tarandus", either with prevailing taxonomy on subspecies, designations based on ecotypes, or natural population groupings, fail to capture "the variability of caribou across their range in Canada" needed for effective species conservation and management. "Across the range of a species, individuals may display considerable morphological, genetic, and behavioural variability reflective of both plasticity and adaptation to local environments."
In eastern North America caribou are classified into three ecotypes – "the mountain caribou which is found south of the St. Lawrence River, the barren-ground caribou which calves in the tundra, and in between, the forest-dwelling ecotype which lives all year long in the boreal forest."
In west-central Alberta there are two ecotypes – boreal and mountain.
In Québec there are three ecotypes with specific habitats and behaviour – the migratory barren-ground ecotype, the mountain ecotype and the forest-dwelling ecotype (boreal woodland caribou). In British Columbia caribou are classified into three ecotypes – mountain, northern and boreal. In Ontario caribou are classified into two ecotypes – forest-dwelling woodland caribou and forest-tundra woodland caribou. In Newfoundland and Labrador, woodland caribou are classified as part of the boreal population of caribou, which is subdivided into two ecotypes: the migratory forest-tundra and the sedentary forest-dwelling ecotype.
Taxonomy.
The species taxonomic name "Rangifer tarandus" (reindeer or caribou) was defined by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The subspecies taxonomic name, "Rangifer tarandus caribou" was defined by Gmelin in 1788.
According to the then-Canadian Wildlife Service Chief Mammalogist, Frank Banfield, in his often-cited "A Revision of the Reindeer and Caribou, Genus Rangifer" (1961), "R. t. caboti" (the Labrador caribou), "R. t. osborni" (Osborn's caribou (from British Columbia)) and "R. t. terraenovae" (the Newfoundland caribou) were considered invalid and included in "R. t. caribou".
Some recent authorities have considered them all valid, even suggesting that they are quite distinct. In their book entitled "Mammal Species of the World", American zoologist Don E. Wilson and DeeAnn Reeder agree with Valerius Geist, specialist on large North American mammals, that this range actually includes several subspecies.
Geist (2007) argued that the "true woodland caribou, the uniformly dark, small-manned type with the frontally emphasized, flat-beamed antlers", which is "scattered thinly along the southern rim of North American caribou distribution" has been incorrectly classified. He affirms that the "true woodland caribou is very rare, in very great difficulties and requires the most urgent of attention."
In 2005, an analysis of mtDNA found differences between the caribou from Newfoundland, Labrador, southwestern Canada and southeastern Canada, but maintained all in "R. t caribou".
Mallory and Hillis argued that, "Although the taxonomic designations reflect evolutionary events, they do not appear to reflect current ecological conditions. In numerous instances, populations of the same subspecies have evolved different demographic and behavioural adaptations, while populations from separate subspecies have evolved similar demographic and behavioural patterns..."[U]nderstanding ecotype in relation to existing ecological constraints and releases may be more important than the taxonomic relationships between populations."
A recent taxonomic revision of the genus "Rangifer" resurrects woodland caribou as "Rangifer caribou", Arctic caribou as "Rangifer arcticus", and Greenland caibou as "Rangifer groenlandicus". The reasons for this are that (1) Greenland caribou are the most genetically divergent of all caribou and reindeer, with an average microsatellite genetic difference (Fixation Index) of FST  = 44% from all others, justifying species status as originally named, "Rangifer groenlandicus"; it also has morphological and behavioral differences from barren-ground caribou (for example, they are "mixed migrators" (some migrate short distances and some do not, and they lack the aggregated rutting and post-calving and synchronized calving of barren-ground caribou); (2) the woodland caribou lineage diverged from other caribou in mid-Pleistocene, 300,000 to 357,000 years ago, not during the last glacial maximum (LGM: 23,000 to 19,000 years ago) as previously assumed and more likely descended from an earlier North American forest reindeer species such as "Torontoceros [Rangifer] hypogaeus," (meaning that it cannot be the same species as barren-ground caribou because they do not share a direct common ancestor) and it has a different mating system (harem defense and dispersed calving vs. individual mate-tending, aggregated rutting and post-calving and synchronized calving of barren-ground caribou, resulting in antler architecture designed for combat rather than for display); these differences and its genetic distance from other caribou justify return to species status, "R. caribou"; (3) the above resulted in Arctic caribou reverting to the name given by Richardson (1829): "Rangifer arcticus", representing a Beringian-Eurasian lineage (BEL); (4) Genetic analysis confirmed earlier assignments based on morphological measurements that placed the four western montane ecotypes in the BEL lineage, but distantly, having diverged ; 60,000 years ago—before the modern ecotypes had evolved their cold- and darkness-adapted physiologies and mass-migration and aggregation behaviors (see Croitor, 2018—requiring their former names to be restored: Selkirk mountain caribou, "R. a. montanus", Rocky Mountain caribou, "R. a. fortidens", Osborn's caribou, "R. a. osborni" and Stone's caribou, "R. a. stonei". As years of molecular analyses had shown the Eastern Migratory population to be of woodland caribou ancestry, albeit with ancient introgression from barren-ground caribou, their name "R. caribou caboti" Allen, 1914 was restored. See Reindeer: Evolution and Reindeer: Taxonomy for more detail.
Québec.
All caribou of the province of Québec were assigned to the same subspecies ("Rangifer tarandus caribou") in 1961. Banfield classified the caribou of Ungava as woodland caribou ("R. t. caribou") based on skull measurements.
In Québec there are three ecotypes with specific habitats and behaviour. Bergerud, et al.; compared the sedentary ecotype caribou in southern Ungava (south of 55°N) to those farther north, the migratory ecotype Leaf River caribou herd (LRH) and the George River caribou herd (GRCH). In southern Ungava caribou females disperse from other females to avoid predators.
Distribution and abundance of caribou in Québec.
In the late 19th century, the southern limit of caribou distribution in Québec receded northwards and there was a decrease in the number of caribou east of the 62nd meridian until the 1970s. By 2003 there were only four small populations south of the 49th parallel.
In 2001 there were more than one million caribou in Nunavik. By 2011 there were fewer than 300,000.
Leaf River caribou herd (LRCH).
The Leaf River caribou herd in the west, near the coast of Hudson Bay, has grown from 270,000 individuals in 1991 to 628,000 in 2001. According to the Québec's Natural Resources and Wildlife survey, the Leaf River herd (LRH) (Rivière-aux-Feuilles) had decreased to 430,000 caribou in 2011.
George River caribou herd (GRCH).
The dramatic decline in numbers of the George River caribou herd has raised concerns. In the 1980s there were between 700,000-800,000 in the George River herd migrating between northern Québec and Labrador. By 2010 there were 74,000. By 2012 the numbers dropped to 27,600 and by 2014 there were only 14,200.
The "George River herd which morphologically and genetically belong to the woodland caribou subspecies, at one time represented the largest caribou herd in the world and migrating thousands of kilometres from boreal forest to open tundra, where most females calve within a three-week period. This behaviour is more like barren-ground caribou subspecies." They argued that "understanding ecotype in relation to existing ecological constraints and releases may be more important than the taxonomic relationships between populations."
According to a National Geographic Daily News article, the George River caribou herd (GRCH) (Rivière-George) numbered only 3,500 animals in the late 1940s. In 1958 the George River herd was estimated to be numbered at 15,000. By 1988, it was the largest herd in the world with a population of 700,000 and by 1993 the numbers rose to 775,000 animals. By 2001, the herd was at 385,000 animals and continuing to decrease, totaling 75,000 animals in 2010. The most recent survey puts the herd size at fewer than 28,000. The George River herd, south of Ungava Bay, whose numbers reached about 800,000 towards 1993, had about 384,000 individuals in 2001.
In January 2013 the Innu, Inuit and Cree of Québec and Nunatsiavut, NunatuKavut and the Innu of Labrador formed the Ungava Peninsula Caribou Aboriginal Round Table held emergency meetings and issued a joint statement. in respond to the "critical decline" of the George River caribou herd (GRCH) and the "uncertain future" of the Leaf River caribou herd (LRCH) and Torngat caribou herds.
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;The land is changing and the impacts of climate change, industrial development, and the growing human population and easier accessibility of the herd cannot be ignored in the management actions to be put forward. With the exponential rate of development, the protection of caribou habitat is greatly deficient and needs to be addressed seriously.
—  The Government of Nunatsiavut recommended that the "George River caribou calving grounds by designating a 14,000 km2 protection zone under the Regional Land Use Plan for the Labrador Inuit Settlement Area."
Distribution.
The migratory George River caribou herd travel thousands of kilometres moving from wintering grounds to calving grounds near the Inuit hamlet of Kangiqsualujjuaq, Nunavik (also known as George River hamlet).
Caribou generally travel upwards of annually and live in an area of about . Some individuals have been observed traveling in a single year.
The caribou population varies considerably, for unknown reasons, and their numbers have apparently peaked in the later decades of each of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The most recent decline at the turn of the 20th century caused much hardship for the Inuit and Cree communities of Nunavik, who hunt them for subsistence. By 1950, as few as 5000 caribou remained in northern Québec and Labrador.
Caribou drownings at Calcaire (Limestone) Falls in 1984.
In late September 1984, about south of the northern village of Kuujjuaq, Québec, about 10,000 caribou (appr. 2% of the George River herd) drowned while crossing the Caniapiscau River, immediately above the Calcaire (Limestone) Falls. The Caniapiscau River confluences with the Larch River downstream from Calcaire (Limestone) Falls to create the Koksoak River that flows into southern Ungava Bay. Although the caribou regularly criss-cross northern rivers and lakes and can swim 10 km at a stretch, northern rivers and lakes often claim lives during their annual migrations. At the time of the accident, observers raised questions about Hydro-Québec's management of the newly built reservoir on the headwaters of the Caniapiscau River, some upstream, and focused their attention on decisions made in the days following