Another canary bite dust, kemo sabe.

"Reindeer and caribou numbers worldwide have plunged nearly 60 percent in the last three decades due to climate change and habitat disturbance caused by humans, a new study finds.

"Global warming and industrial development are driving the dramatic decline, said Liv Vors, a Ph.D. student at the University of Alberta who did the study with university biologist Mark Boyce.

"Their future is dubious if climate change and habitat disturbance continue at their current pace," Vors told LiveScience. "We do not know how quickly they can adapt to this changing world."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090612/sc_livescience/reindeercariboupopulationsplunge

The North American tundra is one of the largest and most undeveloped habitats on the planet, it is hard to imagine that industrialization as altered enough of it to seriously affect this indicator species.