As orcas ail in the Sound, contiguous United States loses its last woodland caribou from Washington

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Washington and the contiguous United States have lost their last woodland caribou, as British Columbia officials have captured and shipped the one surviving animal to a breeding facility in Revelstoke, B.C.

The capture follows a precipitous decline of the South Selkirk Mountains caribou herd, which has traditionally inhabited the northeast corner of Washington, far-north Idaho and southern British Columbia.

Bart George, a wildlife biologist with the Kalispel Tribe, has likened losing the caribou to losing a piece of the tribe. "For the rest of us, it represents an important loss of diversity," said David Moskowitz, author of the acclaimed book "Caribou

The small, quiet, reclusive woodland caribou have received far less local and global attention than Washington's photogenic orca whales.

They are a separate species from the vast caribou herds of Alaska, and inhabit remote interior rain forest valleys such as the 43,348-acre Salmo-Priest Wilderness Area in Pend Oreille County.

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