"The Mulchatna herd that Bavilla grew up hunting, like several other Alaska caribou populations, has thinned dramatically in recent years. It reached its latest peak - some 200,000 animals - in the 1990s, when Bavilla was in high school. But then it plummeted to an estimated low of 12,000 in 2022."
"Bavilla, who is Yup'ik, harvested a couple of animals each season - gathering enough meat to eat, share with neighbors and relatives, and freeze for later. She'd dry some to make a popular snack called kinengyak in Yugtun, the local language, and then dip it in seal oil. Or she'd cut frozen hunks into pieces and eat them raw."
"Caribou no longer pass by Bavilla's village, Platinum, in large numbers, and the changing climate - lack of snow, rivers that no longer reliably freeze over - has made accessing the remaining few much harder. 'I feel like a big part of our subsistence is missing,' Bavilla said."
The Mulchatna caribou herd in Alaska has experienced dramatic population decline, dropping from approximately 200,000 animals in the 1990s to just 12,000 by 2022. This collapse has severely impacted Indigenous Yup'ik communities like Platinum, where caribou hunting traditionally provided essential sustenance, including meat for consumption, storage, and traditional food preparation. Climate change has compounded the crisis, reducing snow cover and freezing patterns that made hunting accessible. In response, Alaska wildlife managers implemented a hunting prohibition in 2021 and conducted aerial culling operations in 2023, killing nearly 100 bears and several wolves to reduce predation on the remaining herd. These drastic measures reflect the urgency of the conservation crisis affecting both wildlife and Indigenous food security.
#caribou-population-decline #indigenous-subsistence-hunting #wildlife-management #climate-change-impact #alaska-conservation
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