Caribous-de-Jourdan Ecological Reserve

IUCN Category Ia - Strict Nature Reserve

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The Réserve écologique of caribou -de- Jourdan is furnished in 1994, 712 ha reserve in the south of the Canadian province of Quebec, in the MRC La Vallée- de - l'Or.

It is located 30 km south of the main town, northwest of Lac Jourdan on the northern banks of the Ottawa.

The reserve was established to protect one of the three remaining caribou herds in the south of the province. The other two herds can be found in the Parc national des Grands- Jardins and Parc national de la Gaspésie. The herd winters in the area, therefore the ecosystem in the Abitibi - level is of great importance, which already lowers towards James Bay here. This in turn is the southernmost bay of the Hudson Bay. The tail region of the herd covers an area of about 1200 km ². It is located a few kilometers south of Val- d'Or, on the border of La Réserve faunique Vérendrye, an animal sanctuary. The herd is shrinking steadily since the 1950s and it is now only about 40 animals. Above all, the destruction and fragmentation of their habitat by roads, settlements, farms and industrial facilities, but also hunting and poaching, car accidents and the restlessness that people bring into the herd, the herd have brought to the brink of extinction.

In the very old granite rocks brought the glacial deposits of various kinds, so that there podzol is the most common type of soil today. Then grow firs, pines, such as the jack pine, and spruce.