Several caribou recently captured by Parks Canada biologists as maternal animals for its breeding facility have escaped.

Three of the 10 female caribou brought to the facility over the weekend were discovered missing by facility veterinarians on Monday. 

The Jasper Local has learned that a small section of perimeter fencing impacted by the wildfire was not properly repaired, allowing the new residents to squeeze through a small gap in the enclosure in the middle of the night. 

The escaped caribou are currently being tracked toward the Tonquin Valley area, according to the Jasper National Park caribou specialist Nüla Layfeld. 

“The Tonquin is their home, it’s very quiet in there these days, it makes sense they’d venture back toward their own herd,” she said.    

Mere days earlier, the animals were captured by a specialized helicopter team operating a net gun. The caribou were to be the first animals in Parks Canada’s $40 million breeding facility.

The escapees included two animals from the Tonquin herd and one from the Brazeau herd. Because they were already tranquilized once during the capture—and then given another drug to reverse the effects of the tranquilizer— biologists were wary of administering yet another dose to facilitate the fragile animals’ re-capture. 

Caribou recovery team leader Frank-Jean Bazillions said if the escaped caribou ended up having their calves near Amethyst Lake, next to the decommissioned horse paddocks and former outfitter lodges, the agency would consider that a win.

“The point is, they’d be in a familiar, man-made setting,” he said. 

Indigenous partners who had been gathering lichen for the captured caribou first learned of the fugitive ungulates this morning, April 1 (April Fools!).

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com