Prudhoe Bay Area Caribou Numbers Highest Ever

Petroleum News Alaska ^ | December 22, 2000

[grundle]

In the 1970s, environmentalists claimed that drilling at Prudhoe Bay would kill the caribou. The oil companies went ahead and drilled anyway. Here's what has happened to the caribou since then.

http://www.anwr.org/features/caribouhigh.htm

[AFreeBird]

Here, let me put up the link for you:

ANWR Caribou

[Black Agnes]

bump

[Russ]

Oh My God! Now you've gone and done it! You've injected facts into the debate! Only misinformation and emotions are allowed...

[PrivateIdaho]

I've always heard that caribou love to hang out around the pipeline. The oil in the pipeline is heated to keep it flowing. The caribou lounge around, have a few cocktails, make babies and give birth near the warm pipe... improving the survival rate.

[OldFriend]

Why,the caribou seem to be multiplying like endangered Canadian geese.

[TomB]

I've always heard that caribou love to hang out around the pipeline. The oil in the pipeline is heated to keep it flowing. The caribou lounge around, have a few cocktails, make babies and give birth near the warm pipe... improving the survival rate.

[Ed McMahon voice]You are correct sir![/Ed McMahon voice]

Looks like it's time for the ubiquitous Prudhoe Bay caribou picture:

NB: There is a nut who posts on here that claims this is a "doctored" picture, because you can see the legs of some caribou and some you can't. Use your own judgement.

[Captainpaintball]

common sense BFLR! (Bump For Later Reading)

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Are Canadian geese good eating? They don't migrate as far as Panama so I have never tasted one. I bet they're yummy!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

If you like dark, greasy meat, they're not all that bad.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Thank you.

[OldFriend]

The geese are on the endangered specie list. There are millions of them fouling parks, playgrounds, ballfields, and farmland all over the east. They don't even bother to migrate anymore. They're here all year round. Every corporate park with a pond has been invaded. Their droppings have contaminated endless tracts of ground.

[Free the USA]

Check the Bump List folders for articles related to and descriptions of the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.

[Psycho_Bunny]

I hate to say it...I've seen that pick before and didn't bother to look at it closely....now that you mention it, though, it's clearly been Photoshopped.

[skytoo]

Sounds like you're upset that wildlife has found a way to coexist with man. But isn't that what you insist they must do: adapt to live with man or cease to exist?

[oyez]

The geese are on the endangered specie list.

They belong on the endangered pest list. I live near Shelby Farms, the nations largest park. Its not unusual to count more than three hundred just crossing the property. The Ag division had set up an expernmental strawberry farm. The geese are having a nice harvest.

[Stand Watch Listen]

It has been mentioned that the caribou herd had over tripled near the pipeline!

Seems other species have flourished as well

[OldFriend]

Sounds to me that the unintended consequence of placing the geese on the endangered specie list and refusing to remove them has resulted in fouled playgrounds and the run off has contaminated the water supply as well. We all have well water and are depending on CLEAN water not poisoned with geese droppings.

[FairWitness]

Reindeer/Caribou

Although they are called by different names in North America, wild caribou and domestic reindeer are considered to be a single species throughout the world, namely Rangifer tarandus.

Reindeer are to Caribou as domestic dogs are to wolves, as pigs are to the wild boar, as friesian-holstein cattle are to the ancient wild cattle of the old world. That is, they have been selectively bread for many generations by man.

As indicated in the quotes above, caribou are from a species that can be tamed/domesticated. As long as humans are not shooting at them, I am sure they are very happy to be around humans and human activity.

[skytoo]

You are confusing the Canada Goose with the Aleutian Canada Goose. The Aleutian is a smaller sub-species and is the one on the Endangered Species List. The ones you are seeing number in the millions and have never been listed. One factor contributing to their increase is falling populations of predators. Of course since man never affects the balance of nature, we didn't contribute to it at all. Falling predator numbers could also be the cause of the increase in the Prudhoe Bay caribou.