Caribou undertake the longest terrestrial migrations of any land mammal and face welfare threats from industrial development fragmenting migration routes.
Caribou migration is one of the great natural spectacles on earth but represents an enormous annual physical challenge involving thousands of kilometers in harsh conditions. Industrial development that fragments corridors forces animals to navigate increasingly hostile landscapes. Calving females disturbed by aircraft, roads, or pipelines abandon calves. Climate change is desynchronizing the spring green-up that caribou time their migration to exploit, leaving calves born into conditions of inadequate food. The compounding of industrial fragmentation and climate disruption is driving catastrophic population collapses that represent welfare crises for millions of individual animals.