AITRC, in partnership with the Cheesh’na Tribal Council, received funding from USFWS through the Tribal Wildlife Grant (TWG) to assist WRST in their already established Mentasta Caribou Herd Monitoring. Capture and collaring of the Mentasta and Chisana Caribou Herds will be conducted the first week of October. AITRC will contribute GPS collars, flight time, and equipment (ultrasound and thermal cameras) as needed. In addition, AITRC has requested samples from historic and upcoming captured caribou to conduct nutritional analysis and disease testing, an expansion of the Moose Health initiative that AITRC’s Ecologist has been working on over the last couple of years. Based on capture success rates and winter survival, AITRC will transition to research calving and recruitment rates in spring/summer 2025. AITRC will submit the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and research permits to be the lead PI of this project, as we have funding through December 2025.