Representatives of Saskatchewan Environment continue the task of assessing the Woodland Caribou population in northern Saskatchewan.
Meetings were held last week in Nipawin, La Ronge and Ile-a-la-Crosse to update interested members of the public on how the process is moving along.
Saskatchewan Environment Wildlife Specialist Trottier says in boreal plain, he will be involved in collecting caribou droppings and gathering DNA information from those samples.
He says that will help identify individual animals and get an idea on their overall numbers.
Trottier says the University of Saskatchewan is also involved in tracking other species in the north.
“This winter the telemetry work is ongoing in the boreal shield so they continue to track caribou and wolves. In the spring they will be collaring some black bears as well to get an idea of the habitat that black bears are using and how that relates to the habitat the caribou are using”.
Trottier says traditional Aboriginal knowledge gathered in northern communities will also be part of the work done by researchers from the U of S.
It is hoped an estimate of the actual caribou numbers in Saskatchewan can be made by late next year.