Alaska’s Western Arctic Caribou Herd population is lower than at any time in over four decades. Climate change is the leading cause of the decline in the herd.

The Kootenay populations, a fixture on the landscape for thousands of years, succumbed to industrial disturbances and other human activity in their critical habitat.

According to the Natural Resources Institute (Luke), the wolf population is expanding into the south and west – but winter will once more contain their numbers.

The size of a large caribou herd in Alaska's Arctic region has dropped by more 50 percent over the last three years, and researchers who have tentatively ruled out hunting and predation as significant factors for the decline are trying to determine why.

Restrictions on bag limits and season length will start July 1 for both the Western Arctic and Teshekpuk herds, whose numbers are dropping. Restrictions will affect both resident and nonresident hunters.

Across the Far North, populations of caribou — an indispensable source of food and clothing for indigenous people — are in steep decline. Scientists point to rising temperatures and a resource-development boom as the prime culprits.