The five mountain caribou from the now two extinct southern B.C. herds were released into the wild earlier this month north of Revelstoke. The caribou are from the southern Selkirk and Purcell mountains and were relocated earlier this year to the maternal pens along Highway 23N. Those herds are now locally extinct and there are no more caribou in the lower 48 U.S. states. Another caribou calf was also released with the five. “She’s now where she belongs,” said Cory Legebokow, Land and Resource Specialist with the BC Caribou Recovery Program at Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. Last year, wildlife cameras captured footage of bears chasing a lone baby caribou. Biologists named it Grace, after a mountain where her mother came from. Her mother died last year and to help Grace escape predation the gates to a caribou maternity pen were reopened and the calf sought refuge inside.