In 1948, in his first year as Chief Mammalogist of the newly formed Canadian Wildlife Service, with limited resources, Banfield undertook an ambitious "multi-year investigation into the status, range, and general ecology of the Barren-ground Caribou" which he coordinated and launched.
In their book entitled Mammal Species of the World, American zoologist Don E. Wilson and DeeAnn Reeder agree with Valerius Geist, specialist on large North American mammals, that this range actually includes several subspecies.
[6][7][8] Geist (2007) argued that the "true" woodland caribou, the "uniformly dark, small-manned type with the frontally emphasized, flat-beamed antlers", which is "scattered thinly along the southern rim of North American caribou distribution" has been incorrectly classified.
He affirms that "true woodland caribou is very rare, in very great difficulties and requires the most urgent of attention.
In numerous instances, populations of the same subspecies have evolved different demographic and behavioural adaptations, while populations from separate subspecies have evolved similar demographic and behavioural patterns... "[U]nderstanding ecotype in relation to existing ecological constraints and releases may be more important than the taxonomic relationships between populations.