Animal Series: Reindeer or Caribou - Rangifer tarandus
Reindeer, called Caribou in North America, are a species of deer inhabiting the areas around the Arctic circle in North America, Russia and Scandinavia. There are many subspecies and they differ greatly in size with the more northerly ones smaller and the boreal woodland caribou as tall as 4 feet (120 cm) at the shoulder. At one time, they were found as far south as Germany, Great Britain, Poland, and Maine, USA.
Their color varies by subspecies, region, gender and season from dark brown in summer for the woodland caribou to nearly white for the ones in Greenland and the high Arctic. White areas often mark the belly, neck and above the hooves. Their coat of hollow hairs is lightweight and insulating against the Arctic temperatures while also providing some buoyancy when swimming.
Considering their size, they have the largest antlers of any deer. Reindeer are the only species of deer where the females grow antlers. Both male and female shed their antlers yearly.
As grazing heribores, they eat grass, sedges, leaves of willows and birches, bark, moss, lichens, stems, roots and tubers.
Females give birth typically to one calf each spring and the young are able to stand and suckle almost immediately. They are vulnerable to bears, wolves, eagles and other predators during their first week of life.
Rudoph?
A small number of reindeer actually have red noses due to an abundance of blood vessels there close to the surface of their skin It's thought this helps regulate their temperature in the extreme Arctic cold.
References
Canadian Museum of Nature - Mammal Gallery
Rangifer tarandus
Images
Photo from the iPad of @kansuze at the the Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa. The Animal Dioramas at the museum date to the 1950s.
@kansuze
They have very odd-looking horns. To think that they grow all those odd branches in a year
The males start growing antlers in the spring and they reach full size by August. Then they shed them in November or December after they have mated. The females usually keep theirs until after they give birth in June.
Antlers are really interesting. They are actually a boney extension of the skull unlike horns on animals. As the bone grows, it's covered with a layer of skin that's full of blood vessels to feed the growing antlers, and as it looks velvety, it is called velvet. Once the antlers reach their full size, the velvet comes off and the bone dies.
Good post!