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Only One in Five Analysed Canadian Species at Risk Overlapped Woodland Caribou Range

Female woodland caribou near Cape St. Mary's, Newfoundland and Labrador
Conservation · Management

Only 94 of 461 analysed Canadian species at risk — about one in five — overlapped the range of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou). The study, published in FACETS on 6 August 2026, asked how often conservation aimed at caribou might also help other species at risk that share the same places and pressures.

The researchers combined national range maps with documented threats. The 461 species represented 71% of the 649 extant species and conservation units listed under Canada’s Species at Risk Act for which the analysis began; species without usable spatial data were excluded from the range-overlap analysis. Of these, 59 species — 12% of the analysed total — had more than 20% of their own range inside woodland caribou range.

Sharing space did not always mean sharing threats

For species whose ranges overlapped caribou, larger-ranged species tended to share more of the same threats. Threat overlap also differed among taxonomic groups, with relatively strong overlap for some amphibians and terrestrial molluscs. Other groups, including arthropods, often faced threats that matched caribou less closely.

This matters because protecting a wide-ranging species can sometimes act like an umbrella: measures that protect its habitat or reduce its threats may also benefit other species in the same landscape. The Canadian analysis shows that this potential is uneven. Woodland caribou conservation is important in its own right and may help some co-occurring species, but many species at risk occupy different areas, have small ranges or face threats that caribou-focused measures do not address well.

Sources and image credit

  1. Hohnen, R., Luymes, N. W., Vander Wal, E., & Stewart, F. E. C. (2026). Does management of woodland caribou threats provide protection for Canada’s other species at risk? FACETS, 11, 1–14.Primary open-access study, version of record online 6 August 2026. Of 461 Canadian species at risk with usable spatial and threat data, 94 (20%) overlapped woodland caribou range and 59 (12% of the analysed total) had more than 20% of their own range within caribou range. Among overlapping species, range size and taxonomic group helped explain how many threats they shared with woodland caribou.

Image: D. Gordon E. Robertson — female migratory woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) near Cape St. Mary’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, 1 May 2010; Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Representative Canadian woodland caribou image; not an animal from the national range-and-threat analysis. · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source

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