Yukon Species At Risk

The earth's plants and animals are going extinct at an alarming rate - a rate that some biologists have estimated at about 100 species every day. Many more species are at risk, including some that live in the Yukon. Today, it is recognized that all life is linked together, that the survival of an endangered species is tied to the survival of its habitat and the other life forms to which it is linked.

Mechanisms for Identifying Species at Risk

Committee on the Status of Endangered Species in Canada (COSEWIC)
COSEWIC is a national committee that evaluates the status of all wildlife species in Canada and identifies those most at risk. COSEWIC places species at risk in the following categories:

Endangered: A species facing imminent extirpation or extinction.

Threatened: A species likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed.

Special Concern: A species with characteristics that make it particularly sensitive to human activities or natural events.

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
CITES governs the cross-border movement of animal parts from species of international concern. Yukon populations of these species are not at risk today, but they must be monitored closely to avoid the problems that have occurred elsewhere.

Yukon Wildlife Act
The Yukon Wildlife Act lists seven species as "specially protected":
elk, muskox, mule deer, cougar, gyrfalcon, peregrine falcon, and trumpeter swan.

Yukon Wildlife Act (PDF 550 kb)

Species at Risk in Yukon

At risk in Yukon and all of Canada (identified by COSEWIC)

Endangered: bowhead whale

Threatened: wood bison (also specially protected by Yukon Wildlife Act), peregrine falcon Anatum subspecies

Special Concern: grizzly bear (also identified by CITES), polar bear, wolverine, short-eared owl, peregrine falcon Tundra subspecies (also specially protected by Yukon Wildlife Act), Squanga whitefish

At risk in Yukon but not elsewhere (identified by the Yukon Wildlife Act)
mule deer, muskox, elk, cougar

At risk elsewhere but not in Yukon (identified by CITES)
wolf, black bear, lynx, river otter, gyrfalcon, all birds of prey

Amphibians
Recent world-wide declines in amphibian populations have led to concerns about the status of amphibians in Canada. Four amphibian species occur in Yukon: Boreal toad, northern wood frog, boreal chorus frog, and Columbian spotted frog.

How You Can Help

Learn all you can about the status of wildlife species and their habitats. Start with the species that live in your region.

Examine your own habits and lifestyle to ensure you are living a life in harmony with earth's other creatures.

Contribute your time and financial support to groups that promote biodiversity and conservation.

Encourage government programs that monitor biodiversity, particularly those that focus on vulnerable, threatened or endangered species.

Broaden your interest to include events in other parts of the world that may be affecting the species in your region. Global problems like disappearing species usually require global solutions.

Teach others about the urgency to protect endangered species. Species at risk from human activities can only be saved with the support of an informed public.

For more information, contact…

Fish and Wildlife Branch
Yukon Department of Environment

Secretariat, COSEWIC c/o Canadian Wildlife Service
Environment Canada
Ottawa, Ont KIA OH3
COSEWIC website

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
c/o Canadian Wildlife Service
Environment Canada
Ottawa, Ont K1A 0H3

Canadian Species at Risk
World Wildlife Fund Canada
90 Eglington Avenue E.
Suite 504
Toronto, Ont M4P 2Z7

Canadian Nature Federation
1 Nicholas Street,
Suite 520
Ottawa, Ont KIN 7137