The number of caribou in captivity in Quebec has grown since May following the birth of more than a dozen new fawns, the provincial government announced this week.
The Quebec environment ministry says two of the three captive herds welcomed 16 new fawns this season, bringing the total number of caribou in captivity to 75.
Officials from the environment ministry oversee three herds of caribou in captivity as part of efforts to help protect the species. Woodland caribou are threatened in Canada, mainly due to habitat destruction caused by human activity.
“The overall health of the fawns and their mothers is good,” wrote the ministry in a press release, adding that their team remained on the field to intervene in case the animals needed extra care.
Pier-Olivier Boudreault, director of conservation at the Quebec branch of the environmental protection group Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, says these statistics paint a mixed picture.
Despite some growth, the herds remain vulnerable, he explained.
“If we have one year in which things don’t go well, we could get really close to losing the entire herd,” he said.
In the Charlevoix herd, eleven fawns survived out of fourteen births, growing the size of the herd to 48 caribou.
Five fawns were born in Gaspésie, while two pregnant female caribou died. In June, the environment ministry had announced it had freed seven caribou from captivity to join the 14 wild caribou. The captive herd in the region now consists of 20 caribou.
The Val-d’Or herd, which is located about 500 kilometres northwest of Montreal and is the smallest herd at only seven caribou, did not grow this year.
Boudreault said the slow growth of the herds may show how difficult it is to rely on captive herds to protect the species.
The herds have been in captivity since 2020 in the case of Val-d’Or, 2022 in Charlevoix and 2023 in Gaspésie. The Quebec environment ministry has described this as a temporary protection measure.
Boudreau describes the practice as an “extreme conservation measure,” noting that herds in captivity are more vulnerable to illnesses. He also said that losing two females can have a big impact on fertility.
Ultimately, the herds’ natural habitat needs to be restored so that they can reintegrate, he argues.
“What we’re doing right now is that we’re putting a bandage on a hemorrhage, because these populations are not in good shape,” said Boudreault.
The solution, he says, is to restore the boreal forest by closing forestry roads, planting new trees and protecting old growth.
Caribou are known as an “umbrella species”: because they thrive in vast habitats of old forest, their well-being is directly tied to that of their ecosystem. And right now, that ecosystem is struggling, points out Boudreault.
“If we reintegrate them right now, it wouldn’t be of much use. It would be like putting water back in a leaking bathtub,” he said.
He adds that forest conservation measures should be implemented in partnership with the forestry industry to reach a compromise between protecting the caribou and protecting local economies.
A $25-million agreement between Quebec and Ottawa announced in late June to fund caribou conservation initiatives drew a mixed response from environmentalists. While they praised the collaboration between governments on this issue, they also feared the funding might not lead to concrete and impactful change.
The federal government also announced $15 million to Indigenous communities in Quebec who are implementing their own programs.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2026.
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