Caribou crash

A US government census of caribou in northern Alaska this summer could
provide ammunition for opponents of President Bush’s plans to drill for oil in
the area. Bush said last week that he would press Congress to approve drilling
in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But the area earmarked is precisely
where the giant caribou herd gathers most summers to give birth to calves and
graze on the rich pastures. Caribou experts suspect that the herd’s population
is already falling. Fran Mauer, caribou specialist at the US Fish and Wildlife
Service in Fairbanks, Alaska, told New Scientist that the government…