How tall can a caribou get

Caribou are native to North America, whereas reindeer are native to northern Europe and Asia. Alaska does have some reindeer, however, imported from Siberia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some people use the term "reindeer" to refer to domesticated work animals, such as those pulling Santa's sleigh, but there are both wild and domestic herds of reindeer.

Caribou, on the other hand, are wild-living and long-migrating. Indigenous groups, including the Sami in northern Scandinavia and the Nenet in Russia's Arctic , herd reindeer and use them for their meat. That's also likely why reindeer evolved to be stockier than caribou. Caribou make one of the world's great large-animal migrations. As summer approaches, they head north along well-trod annual routes. Some herds may travel more than miles to get to their summer grazing grounds.

They'll spend the summer months feeding on the abundant grasses and plants of the tundra. An adult caribou can eat 12 pounds of food each day. This is also when they give birth. When the first snows fall each year, the caribou turn back south. Herds of female caribou, called cows, leave several weeks before the males, which follow with yearling calves from the previous birthing season.

The herds spend the winter in more sheltered climes and survive by feeding on lichens. Caribou are taller and lankier than reindeer, likely because they evolved to make these long migrations. Caribou, as part of the deer family, have large hooves that are useful tools for life in the harsh northlands.

They are big enough to support the animal's bulk on snow and to paddle it efficiently through the water. The hoof's underside is hollowed out like a scoop and used for digging through the snow in search of food. Its sharp edges give the animal good purchase on rocks or ice. Caribou are the only deer in which male and females both have antlers—though only some females have them.

Cows have one calf each year, which can stand after only a few minutes and move on with its mother by the next day. Reindeer are covered in hair from their nose to the bottom of their feet hooves.

The hairy hooves may look funny, but they give reindeer a good grip when walking on frozen ground, ice, mud, and snow. Reindeer are the only deer species to have hair completely covering their nose. Their good sense of smell helps the reindeer find food hidden under snow, locate danger, and recognize direction. Reindeer mainly travel into the wind so they can pick up scents.

Reindeer eat mosses, herbs, ferns, grasses, and the shoots and leaves of shrubs and trees, especially willow and birch. In winter, they make do with lichen also called reindeer moss and fungi, scraping the snow away with their hooves to get it. An average adult reindeer eats 9 to 18 pounds of vegetation a day.

Reindeer travel, feed, and rest together throughout the day in herds of 10 to a few hundred. In spring, they may form super-herds of 50, to , animals. Topics About Can Geo. Canada Charting Change. Commemorate Canada. Explore Podcast. Gear Reviews. Map archive. Ocean Bridge. Ocean Supercluster.

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