The Chisana caribou recovery project has been a success in the eyes of caribou biologist Rick Farnell of the Yukon's Department of the Environment.

Farnell said this morning if survival among the calves released Tuesday mirrors what it was in the first two years of the project, another year of captive-rearing would be unnecessary.

But Farnell emphasized it won't be until the planning team meets in Tok, Alaska, on July 7 that a course for next year is discussed.

It will be his recommendation, however, that the team now focus on other methods of assisting the revival of the herd, such as the formation of an international agreement to manage the Chisana caribou, he said.

'That is what I am going to say in Tok in July,' said the primary co-ordinator of the joint Yukon-Alaska recovery effort over the last three years. 'But I really want to hear what the others have to say.

'They could say, Rick, let's beat the drum and find some funding, and let's do it again next year.''

Forty-five calves and their mothers were released from a wilderness pen south of Beaver Creek where the cows have resided since April, when they were captured in the wild using a netgun from a helicopter.

Using captive rearing in a wilderness pen on the herd's winter range was based on the belief that protecting the calves from predation in the first couple of weeks after birth would result in a much higher rate of calf survival.

Ultimately, it was believed, the recruitment of more young animals would not only add the herd's numbers, but would also help bring down the average age in the herd.

Of the 50 calves born this year, one was abandoned by its 14-year-old mother, in what Farnell believes was a case of an aging cow not able to provide the necessary nutrition for both her and and her calf. The calf, taken from the pen some 30 hours after the last contact with its mother, has become a star attraction at the Yukon Wilderness Preserve.

Three more died. Again, Farnell suspects it was a case of the cows not able to meet the calves' nursing requirements, though the carcasses will be examined later to learn more about the cause of death.

A fifth calf was euthanized after staff noticed it had a broken leg. Farnell said he decided euthanizing was best, rather than putting the calf through an amputation and a subsequent risk of infection.

Last year, 30 cows were kept inside the pen, though one died. Of the 29 calves released, three were killed by bears within hours of their release. However, extra precaution from the air was taken this year to ensure there were no predators in the neighbourhood at the time of release.

In the first year, 17 calves were released, of which 12 or 13 survived, equating to a survival rate of 70 per cent or better compared to a dismal survival rate among the calf crop born in the wild that year.

Farnell said he's not yet received the results of a survey to determine the rate of calf survival in the wild this year.

But if the overall survival of the captive-reared calves is as successful as it was in the first two years, and a comprehensive aerial census in the fall of 2006 confirms the success of the program, he expects the Chisana herd could be taken off the territory's list of specially-protected wildlife.

'I think I would like to talk to everybody about taking a different tact now,' he said of his approach to the upcoming meeting in Tok. 'One, develop an international co-operation agreement for the herd so that this sort of thing does not happen again.'

The agreement, he said, would include management guidelines, including what would be an acceptable sex ratio in the herd, and a calf ratio, as well as establish a number at which the herd could sustain some hunting pressure. The agreement would have to address how any hunting quota would be shared, he said.

The project cost about $300,000 in each of the three years. It involved Yukon school kids picking tonnes of lichen to mix with the commercial pellet food the caribou were fed.

With alarm bells first going off in the late 1980s and early '90s regarding the health of the Chisana herd, it was estimated back then that the population had nose-dived from 1,800 in the late 1980s to some 300 by 1993.

New estimates after the recovery program started put the population's lowest decline at 600 to 700 animals, and not the 300, though there was equal concern with the increasing average age and the lack of young animals to fill in the reproductive requirements.

The captive-rearing concept was unique. It has attracted the attention of other jurisdictions as a viable method of assisting troubled caribou herds.

In addition to the rearing work, a battery of biologists and scientists from both sides of the border used the chance to conduct research otherwise not possible, including the development of an infield ultrasound method to test for pregnancy.