What the caribou taught Don Russell

Don Russell, who dedicated his career to caribou research and contributed articles to The Circle, passed away earlier this year. His colleague, ANNE GUNN, reflects on his achievements and the legacy he leaves behind for caribou and the people who depend on them.

You are what you eat.

Perhaps that’s not an immediately obvious summary of Don Russell’s contributions to caribou conservation, but it’s an apt one, nonetheless. Don understood that what a female caribou ate, predicted her protein and fat reserves—essential for her calf’s survival and her chance of conceiving another calf.

Don used that understanding to develop a computer model that could predict how the presence of a road, mine or oilfield would affect caribou behaviour, even (or especially) in a warming climate.

For example, Don’s modelling showed that the development of an oilfield on the Porcupine herd’s calving and summer ranges in Alaska and the Yukon could result in a population decline of 3 to 19 per cent, depending on the leasing scenario.

Projections of the cumulative impacts of industrial developments and climate change on trends in herd size constitute vital information for people who share the caribou ranges—for those who, in essence, depend on the caribou’s future.

Reading the land, building the model

Don’s profound insights into the link between a female caribou’s diet and her success at raising a calf evolved during his first foray into Arctic fieldwork on the coast of Alaska in the early 1970s, when he worked with his mentor, Robert “Bob” White, on caribou forage intake.

He went on to study forage intake relative to digestion for his master’s thesis, gaining considerable expertise in computer modelling in the process. His modelling work grew increasingly sophisticated and realistic as he added variables—in particular, how an individual caribou allocates energy and protein to its growth and how that relates to its calf’s growth and survival.

To achieve this level of realism, Don collaborated with other biologists, often Bob White. But they weren’t just sitting at their desks looking at computer screens. Underpinning the modelling work were long days and weeks spent observing caribou and recording their daily habits and activities in minute detail: How many times did caribou paw through the snow to reach forage? How many minutes did they run to avoid clouds of mosquitoes? All of this information was relevant.

Don began his career as the habitat biologist for the Government of Yukon Game Branch (a Yukon conservation agency) in 1976. Later, he was the caribou biologist and eventually the manager for the Canadian Wildlife Service in Yukon. During those years, Don was a member of both the Porcupine Caribou Management Board and the Wildlife Management Advisory Council (North Slope) and co-chair of the International Porcupine Caribou Board.

His many years of fieldwork—being out on the land with caribou and caribou people—gave his voice the unmistakable ring of experience and knowledge and made him an invaluable participant among co-management decision-makers.

—Anne Gunn, caribou biologist who worked closely with Don Russell for 30 years.

The measure of the man

As a person, Don was empathetic and kind. As a scientist, he was both curious and formidable, keenly attuned to caribou behaviour and evolutionary fitness, and passionate about the herds’ survival. As a field biologist, he was patient and keenly observant.

Don’s open and collaborative nature brought him into contact with research that illustrated how caribou herds differed across the Arctic. As a result, it was a natural step for him to take the lead in building a network—CircumArctic Rangifer Monitoring and Assessment (CARMA)—to document the impacts of climate change, industrial development and social change on caribou and wild reindeer herds in Greenland, Russia, Alaska and northern Canada.

Don’s death is a blow to caribou conservation, but his legacy is immense and ongoing. His insights into caribou adaptability yielded indispensable guidance on how to monitor and mitigate the many threats to both caribou and caribou people. And he left us with a powerful exemplar of the value and necessity of working together—one that the CARMA network continues to embody.