An international network of scientists is examining caribou and wild reindeer herds across the Arctic, from Alaska and the Yukon to Russia and Greenland.

The four-year, $4-million International Polar Year project aims to gather consistent data across the circumpolar region on those herds, how they are changing, and how that affects people who depend on the animals for survival.

An international study will examine the effects of a changing habitat on herds around the circumpolar region. Caribou cross a river in this undated photo.
(Canadian Press)

Whitehorse caribou biologist Don Russell, who is leading the research from the Northern Research Institute at Yukon College, said he wants to document the impacts of climate change, industrial development and social change on 10 herds in Greenland, Russia, Alaska and northern Canada.

"It's very exciting to be able to work across the circumpolar North, to expand what we've learned in the 30 years that I've been working … on caribou in North America," Russell, a longtime caribou researcher, said in an interview with CBC Radio.

"I'm really excited to see some of the differences and a lot of the similarities."

To do that, he and his team want to introduce testing standards, in order to make sure scientists in all participating countries are gathering data that can be compared with each other easily. That data may include things like the animals' fat and protein levels, or details of when the snow melts in a caribou herd's habitat.

Other Canadian partners in Russell's project include researchers at Environment Canada and the University of Calgary. All participating scientists will meet this November in Vancouver, where Russell said he plans to hold a laboratory training session to introduce uniform animal testing standards.

Russell said he recently met with colleagues in Siberia, who are studying the Taimyr reindeer herd — believed to be the largest in the world, with an estimated 600,000 to one million animals. Exact population numbers on that herd aren't available.

"In fact, one of the key outcomes of our meetings in Siberia is that we will develop or contribute to a national strategy for Russia on putting on satellite collars on their herds," he said.

"The problem is they can't seem to get central permission to apply these satellite collars, so we're going to try and sort of get rid of the mystique of what these things actually are."

Russell said the Canadian herds that will be part of his research include the Porcupine caribou herd that roams across the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Alaska; the Bluenose West herd in the Northwest Territories; and the Southampton Island herd in Nunavut.