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Ryan: Wait a minute! If there are so many of them, how can they be in danger?
Morgan: Yeah! Whatever happened to safety in numbers?
Inukshuk: Caribou are indeed in danger. It is the places that are the furthest North that will feel the greatest impact from climate change - the very place where caribou call home. Even slight changes in their environment can have a great impact.
Ryan: Wouldn't a warmer climate make life easier for the caribou? I mean it can't be easy living out on the tundra when it is, like, 100 below zero, even if you are wearing a nice caribou fur coat!
Inukshuk: It isn't the changes in temperature that affect the caribou so much as the effect those changes may have on the environment the caribou live in. Tell me, do you know what caribou eat?
Ryan: Caribou chow! Ha, Ha! No, maybe plants?
Morgan: I know - caribou eat lichen, little plants that grow on the rocks of the tundra.
Inukshuk: That's right. And scientists know that if it warms up even just a little, much of the ecosystem that is the tundra could disappear, forced out by plants that previously could only have lived further south. Some caribou herds would lose the lichen that they depend on for food.
Morgan: Couldn't the caribou just move further north?
Inukshuk: Well, the disappearing lichen is just one of the problems caribou face. Warmer temperatures may also mean more snow, more freezing rain and more melting and refreezing of the snow pack during the winter. All this could lead to a harder snow pack than what the caribou are used to. It will take them more time and energy to dig through it to find the lichen they need to survive. The more time they spend digging for food, the less time they have to actually eat it!
Ryan: But that's only in the winter. They would be able to fatten up in the summer when there is no snow around, right?
Inukshuk: Well, no. They would face problems in the summer too. Remember what I said about caribou being very sensitive animals? Warmer weather and more rain and snow is good news for at least one creature - mosquitoes. In a world changed forever by climate change, the one thing we can be sure of is more bugs. Mosquitoes and other bugs are bad news for caribou.
Ryan: Mosquitoes and bugs are bad news for me too! Yuck!
Inukshuk: Thick swarms of mosquitoes harass the caribou so much that they end up spending more time trying to get away than eating.
Morgan: I can't believe that caribou are in such danger! They are so important to my people; I don't know what we'd do without them!
Inukshuk: Fortunately, it is not all bad news. Warmer temperatures may mean that winter will come later in the year. This would result in a longer fall with no snow. Fall is a very important time of year for the caribou, when they migrate over long distances in search of food.
Ryan: Fall is moving time for the caribou?
Inukshuk: Well, in a manner of speaking, yes. Snow is very difficult to walk in. If there is not so much of it, the caribou will not have to use so much energy in their annual migration. What...What are you doing with that flyswatter?
Ryan: I'm going to help the caribou!
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