Hair Biomarkers to Support Barren-ground Caribou Health Monitoring and Management
Date
2022-06-07
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Abstract
Barren-ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) are a keystone species of Canada, whose population health is a current and future management priority. Many of these historically numerous populations, including the Bluenose-East (BNE) and Dolphin and Union (DU) herds, have severely declined in the last two decades, thus there is an impetus to understand the health status of these populations. Considering the challenges associated with monitoring Arctic wildlife, hair is a practically advantageous sample type that is currently opportunistically collected. I evaluated two biomarkers derived from caribou hair (trace element and cortisol concentrations) in the context of opportunistic monitoring and review the literature to understand how to best orient Rangifer health research into management and conservation. First, I reviewed the most abundant health literature on caribou, the Rangifer infectious disease literature, and documented numerous barriers to health information dissemination and implementation. I then outlined practical solutions to facilitate solutions-oriented Rangifer health research. Second, I examined two biomarkers pertinent to caribou health, hair trace element and hair cortisol concentrations that provide seasonal measures of nutrition and contribute to allostatic load, respectively. I demonstrated that these biomarkers vary between anatomic sampling locations and provided recommendations for future hair collection protocols. Furthermore, I uncovered associations of these biomarkers with sex, season, year, and sampling source that have implications for future monitoring and biomarker interpretation. This work has advanced our understanding of two biomarkers derived from caribou hair, outlined future research avenues to improve the robustness of these monitoring tools, and demonstrated broadly how to better translate caribou health research into management and conservation frameworks.
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Keywords
Caribou, Wildlife Monitoring, Wildlife Health
Citation
Rakic, F. (2022). Hair Biomarkers to Support Barren-ground Caribou Health Monitoring and Management (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.