Can Jasper’s new breeding centre save caribou from local extinction?

In the remote stretches of the Tonquin Valley, a population of caribou is teetering on the brink of local extinction. But a first-of-its-kind breeding centre just south of the Jasper townsite has seen some early successes that point to hope for the species.

Seven new calves were born this spring at the Caribou Conservation Breeding Centre, about 35 kilometres from Jasper. 

“They’re all healthy,” says Jean-Francois Bisaillon, program manager of the Jasper Caribou Recovery Program. “It was very impactful for the program this year.”

There are 50 wild caribou, including 11 reproducing females, left in the Jasper-Banff local population unit, which encompasses the area south of Highway 16 in Jasper National Park and all of Banff National Park.

The caribou in the Tonquin herd is the only one with animals still living in the wild.

The last three remaining caribou in the Brazeau herd were among the first captured for Jasper’s recovery project. The Maligne herd had completely disappeared by 2020, and the last five animals in the Banff herd were wiped out by an avalanche in 2009.

In March 2025, a team of 30 Parks Canada staff captured 10 wild caribou — including seven pregnant females — in Jasper National Park and brought them to the breeding centre.

The centre also received a surprise guest: an orphan calf rescued from the Central Selkirks Caribou Maternity Pen facility in British Columbia, about 280 kilometres south as the crow flies.

At that maternity pen, pregnant caribou are brought into a safe pen so they can bear and nurse their calves away from predators.

One of the cows at the maternity pen had abandoned her female calf, so staff raised her.  When the group of cows and calves were ready to be released in July, the orphan was not strong enough to reintegrate into the wild.

“She needed a lot more care,” said Bisaillon. who added that the orphan needed to be bottle fed for a few more months.

Staff at Jasper’s centre are now focused on rewilding her, as she has become comfortable and confident around humans. Bisaillon said it’s too soon to tell when she will be released.

Starting in June, the four male calves will be released into the Tonquin Valley. The females will stay to establish the breeding herd.

Once the facility has 40 reproducing females in captivity, the breeding herd will be at full capacity and Bisaillon expects to release 26 to 34 calves each year. 

The goal is to repopulate the herd that roams the Tonquin Valley to 200, a goal that is expected to take between five and 10 years.

Afterward, the program will refocus efforts on repopulating the Brazeau and Maligne herds.

Built between 2023 and 2024, the $40-million centre is the first of its kind in North America and runs on an annual budget of $2 million.

The facility spans 65 hectares — equivalent to about 95 soccer fields — and has 35 pens connected by more than 300 gates. The design allows staff to move animals through roundabouts with minimal human interaction.

The facility includes a barn where caribou can be weighed and vaccinated, as well as an administration building that has sleeping quarters, a lab and a necropsy room, though staff haven’t needed to dissect any diseased caribou so far.

While the structures survived the Jasper wildfires in July 2024, the flames destroyed 97 per cent of the vegetation in the pens.

In response to the loss of tree shelter, staff built shade structures and misting stations to keep the animals cool in the summer. They’ve also planted and transplanted roughly 50,000 trees to speed up regeneration.

Can Jasper’s new breeding centre save caribou from local extinction?

While caribou populations in Alberta have been dwindling for decades, Bisaillon said that early reports from explorers and Indigenous groups talk about the animals being abundant, “like ants walking on the landscape.”

The decline in Jasper is partly due to historical mismanagement. In the early 1920s, park staff reintroduced elk to the area. To ensure the elk survived, they conducted “intensive wolf control” until 1959.

“When we stopped wolf control, the wolves had plenty of prey to eat on. And that wolf population increased significantly over time, which added a lot of pressure on the caribou population,” said Bisaillon.

Tara Russell, a program director at Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Northern Alberta, said the early successes at the breeding centre offer hope that the species will rebound.

However, she warns that protecting high alpine environments and managing the landscape as a whole is necessary for all of Alberta’s caribou to survive.

“I just don’t think we should let our other remaining caribou populations across the country within Alberta get to the point where their only hope is this very intensive measure where you’re bringing them into a breeding facility,” said Russell, adding that breeding centres are “incredibly” expensive.

Bisaillon said that Indigenous partners have been key in supporting the centre through collecting lichen for the caribou to eat.

Shelley Calliou has been involved in the project for eight years as the cultural adviser for Kelly Lake Cree Nation in northwest B.C., and a board member on the Jasper Indigenous Forum.

Last year, Kelly Lake Cree Nation gathered 170 bags of lichen, which led to a program where eight adults and eight youth would go out on the land to learn about sustainable harvesting from an elder.

She said that First Nations collaboration is especially meaningful, given the history between Indigenous communities and Parks Canada. First Nations and Métis people were removed from the park during its establishment

“Every one of my family lineages are traced into the park and well-noted and sourced,” said Calliou.

“I think it was really important that we had a place and involvement,” she said. “It’s really about that inclusion and being able to look after the land and look after everything that exists in the land.”

The next milestone for the breeding centre is the release of yearling calves this spring.