The Yukon — Canada's most northwestern territory — encompasses vast wilderness: boreal forest, alpine tundra, and river systems supporting intact large mammal communities. Climate change is transforming this ecosystem faster than almost anywhere else on Earth.
The Porcupine Caribou Herd undertakes one of the world's great migrations — from winter ranges in the boreal forest to calving grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska, covering 2,400km round trip. Welfare challenges include:
Yukon grizzlies face changing food availability as climate shifts berry and ground squirrel timing. Bears that fail to accumulate sufficient fat before denning face hyperphagia stress and poor condition emergence in spring — thin spring bears have higher mortality from conflict and reduced reproductive success. Highway vehicle strikes kill grizzlies on the Alaska Highway corridor.
Yukon maintains one of the densest wolf populations in North America. Government wolf control programs — aerial gunning to reduce wolf numbers and increase caribou and moose harvests for hunters — kill hundreds of wolves annually. Aerial hunting is a contentious welfare issue: wounded wolves that fall and die slowly are not uncommon; family group disruption from pack killings causes behavioral disruption in survivors.
The Yukon is warming 2-3x faster than the global average. Permafrost thaw is destabilizing slopes and creating thermokarst lakes; shrub expansion onto tundra is reducing lichen (caribou winter forage); fire frequency and intensity are increasing. These landscape changes force wildlife behavioral and physiological adaptation under chronic stress conditions.
Yukon First Nations have managed wildlife under co-management agreements since the 1990s. Indigenous land stewardship — including regulated harvest, landscape burning for habitat management, and seasonal restriction from sensitive areas — integrates welfare considerations in culturally grounded frameworks. Traditional ecological knowledge of animal behavior and welfare is increasingly integrated into formal wildlife management.