Gray Ghosts, the Last Caribou in the Lower 48 States, Are 'Functionally Extinct'
"Logging, road building, unsustainable recreation, oil and gas development, and mining to continue in mountain caribou habitat". The battle to save the so-called gray ghosts — the only herd of caribou in the lower 48 states — has been lost.
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A recent aerial survey shows that this international herd of southern mountain caribou, which spends part of its year in the Selkirk Mountains of northern Idaho and Washington near the Canadian border, has dwindled to just three animals and should be considered "functionally extinct," experts say.