The effort to establish the number of woodland caribou living in northern Saskatchewan continues this winter and part of that effort is an aerial survey.
The flights involve fixed-wing aircraft, as well as helicopters and began in the La Ronge area last week.
The survey is expected to be completed in March.
Ministry of Environment Habitat Ecologist Gigi Pittoello says flight crews are looking for signs of caribou activity — like trails and feeding areas.
Pittoello says after that, crews will go out and collect caribou fecal pellets, which will be sent to a university for DNA analysis
“They are able to identify individual animals, and by doing this a number of times over several years, we can actually come up with a population size estimate for the group of caribou in the area that we survey,” said Pittoello.
The development of a range plan for the woodland caribou in Saskatchewan has been going on for several years.
The process has included traditional Indigenous knowledge, including a study directed by the University of Saskatchewan, which included formal and informal interviews with First Nations around the region.
(PHOTO: Woodland caribou. Photo courtesy of the Government of Saskatchewan.)