Human land use and climate change are both leading causes of biodiversity loss. But more often than not, those two things are highly intertwined, and it's really tricky to tell which one is the root cause or if it's both," Melanie Dickie, a wildlife biologist at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan.
Dickie described these deer as an 'invasive species.' Because more deer in these forests can have an impact on other species like boreal caribou. With deer come more predators like wolves.
While deer are able to cope with living alongside predators like wolves, caribou are not. Dickie says they've evolved to mostly just avoid areas with lots of predators. And that gets tricky when there are more wolves around.
Deer are really just one piece of the puzzle for boreal caribou, but having more information about what exactly is driving deer expansion helps researchers figure out where to start when it comes to restoring land and protecting wildlife.
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