1. CARMA – Rangifer Health Inventory and Beyond Susan Kutz, Ryan Brook, Pat Curry, Julie duCrocq and Danna Schock A big thanks to Dean Brown

2. Bottom Line “ensure barren-ground caribou continue to use their ranges and remain an important aspect of the lives of NWT residents.” Caribou Forever GNWT

3. CARMA IPY Bring together a network of biological, social, and physical scientists, First Nations peoples, wildlife managers, and others, to examine the health and vulnerability of Rangifer species around the Arctic Opportunity to compile historical and existing traditional and scientific knowledge and generate new knowledge to inform management and policy

4. Overview of CARMA Collections N=649 caribou sampled from 2004-2009 from 8 herds: Ahiak (n=36) Akia-Maniitsoq population Greenland (n=41) Bathurst (n=150) Beverly/Qaminirjuaq (n=56) Bluenose East (n=65) Bluenose West (n=51) George (n=116) Leaf (n=118) Porcupine (n=15) Adults (79%), Calves (19%), Yearlings (2%) Males (37%), Females (63%) Body condition, pregnancy, body size and composition, pathogens

5. Inventory - Biodiversity Essential first step to understanding the role of pathogens in – Rangifer individual and herd health – human health (zoonotic diseases) – ecosystem health (spillover to sympatric species) If you don’t know the wolves are there you can’t understand how they are affecting the population

6. Preliminary findings – Biodiversity new and varied across populations Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (Map, or Johnes disease), in Akia-Maniitsoq caribou, Greenland (Orsel and Cuyler) – Free-ranging Rangifer susceptible – Spill-over from domestics? Increased diversity of gastrointestinal nematodes in Greenland and Labrador – Spill-over from domestics? – Different sympatric species and recent evolutionary history – Significance in health of populations? Trypanosoma genotypes (Schock) – Hidden diversity – multiple genotypes in Canada, only one genotype in Greenland.

7. Inventory - Distribution of Pathogens within Herds Knowing how parasites are distributed within a population is essential for understanding transmission dynamics and population level impact

8. Inventory - Distribution within Herds

10. Distribution Across Seasons Provides information on When pathogen may have an impact When to sample When transmission occurs

11. Inventory – Establish Normal (?) Status and Variability among Individuals

12. Inventory – Establish Normal (?) Status and Variability among Herds

13. Caribou, Southampton Island

14. Brucella suis and Pregnancy A compelling case for inventory and monitoring

15. Beyond Inventory - Comparison across herds Compare parasites vs disease, herd trajectory, climate, density, demographics, sympatric species, etc.

16. Herd Comparisons

17. These analyses provide insight into what to focus on, where are the key differences, what sort of patterns are present. However, – Correlational – If we look at a herd at its low, expect very low pathogen abundance – few interesting pathogen events

18. What does this mean to the herds? How can it inform management? Move beyond correlational to predictive. Move beyond correlational to predictive. How do pathogens impact individuals? How do pathogens impact individuals?

19. How do pathogens impact individuals? Energy Increased consumption Reduced intake Behaviour Physical Personality/ cognitive Repro. Direct effects

20. Approach IPY collections – can analyze pathogens relative to body condition etc. Interpretation limited because – Cross-sectional study – Lag effects – Seroprevalence =exposure, not disease Some correlations will be biologically valid Longitudinal and manipulative studies can provide insight (Svalbard, Red Grouse) Experimental approach

21. The Health Continuum - Time 0

22. The Health Continuum – Time 1 - Environmental Change

23. The Health Continuum – Severe weather event

24. Climate Environment Habitat Sympatric species Pathogens Caribou Health and Vulnerability

25. Rangifer PathogensHabitatDisturbanceClimateContaminants Drivers of Health What is the relative contribution of these drivers? Are there drivers that we are missing? Are we incorporating known drivers into our existing models?

26. Rangifer Pathogens Habitat Disturbance Climate Contaminants Drivers of Health How do they interact? How to move to a more integrative, predictive framework?

27. What is ‘Normal’? Under what biotic and abiotic conditions do Rangifer survive? Under what conditions do they thrive? What is acceptable variability?

28. CARMA as a network – provides the medium to mobilize our diverse knowledge, expertise and resources, cross disciplinary boundaries, and develop enhanced predictive capacity