Cabin Radio: Ancient antlers show caribou calving grounds persist over millennia

Miller has been leading summer expeditions to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge since 2010, using rafts to navigate remote rivers to search for caribou antlers exposed on the tundra.

Female caribou shed their antlers within days of giving birth, leaving behind a record of their annual travels across Alaska and Canada’s Ivvavik National Park that persists on the cold tundra for hundreds or even thousands of years. Miller and his collaborators with the University of Alaska and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recovered antlers that have sat undisturbed on the arctic tundra since the Bronze Age.

The study demonstrates how important the area is for an animal that native Alaskans and Canadians still depend on for sustenance, even as energy companies seek to exploit oil and gas resources in this protected area.

Female caribou shed their antlers within days of giving birth, leaving behind a record of their annual travels across Alaska and Canada’s Yukon that persists on the cold tundra for hundreds or even thousands of years. Researchers recovered antlers that have sat undisturbed on the arctic tundra since the Bronze Age.

“It still blows my mind that you can just walk across tundra and there are these ancient echoes of this past population,” Miller told Cabin Radio.

Read the Cabin Radio story.

Featured image at top: UC assistant professor Joshua Miller uses shed antlers to track the annual migration of caribou. Photo/Lucian Provines

• Billings Gazette: Old antlers help date caribou calving grounds to 3,000 years old

• Terra Daily: Caribou have been using same Arctic calving grounds for 3,000 years

• Phys.Org: Study finds caribou have been using Arctic calving grounds for 3,000 years

• Knoxville Daily Sun: Caribou have been using same Arctic calving grounds for 3,000 years

• Science Daily: Caribou have been using same calving grounds for 3,000 years

• Earth.com: Caribou have used same calving grounds for 3,000 years