Reindeer

For other uses, see Reindeer (disambiguation).
"Caribou" redirects here. For other uses, see Caribou (disambiguation).
Reindeer
Temporal range: Middle Pleistocene to present[1]
PreЄЄOSDCPTJKPgN
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Reinbukken på frisk grønt beite. - panoramio.jpg
Reindeer in Norway
Conservation status

Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)[2]
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Cervidae
Subfamily: Capreolinae
Tribe: Rangiferini
Genus: Rangifer
C.H. Smith, 1827
Species: R. tarandus
Binomial name
Rangifer tarandus
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Rangifer tarandus map.png
Reindeer habitat divided into North American and Eurasian parts
Synonyms
Cervus tarandus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), also known as caribou in North America,[3] is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of northern Europe, Siberia, and North America.[2] This includes both sedentary and migratory populations. Rangifer herd size varies greatly in different geographic regions. The Taimyr herd of migrating tundra reindeer (R.t. sibiricus) in Russia is the largest wild reindeer herd in the world,[4][5] with numbers varying between 400,000 and 1,000,000. What was the second largest herd is the migratory woodland caribou (R.t. caribou) George River herd in Canada, with former variations between 28,000 and 385,000. Unfortunately, as of January 2018, there are fewer than 9,000 animals estimated to be left in the George River herd as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Rangifer vary in colour and size from the smallest, the Peary caribou, to the largest, the boreal woodland caribou. The North American range of caribou extends from Alaska, through the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, into the boreal forest and south through the Canadian Rockies and the Columbia and Selkirk Mountains.[6] Barren-ground, Porcupine caribou and Peary caribou live in the tundra, while the shy woodland caribou prefers the boreal forest. Two major subspecies in North America, the Porcupine caribou and the barren-ground caribou, form large herds and undertake lengthy seasonal migrations from birthing grounds, to summer and winter feeding grounds in the tundra and taiga. The migrations of Porcupine caribou herds are among the longest of any terrestrial mammal.[6] Barren-ground caribou are also found in Kitaa in Greenland, but the larger herds are in Alaska, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.[7]

While overall widespread and numerous,[2] some of its subspecies are rare and at least one has already become extinct, for example, the Queen Charlotte Islands caribou, Canada.[8][9] Historically the range of the sedentary boreal woodland caribou covered over half of present-day Canada,[10] and into the northern States in the U.S.. Woodland caribou have disappeared from most of their original southern range and were designated as threatened in 2002 by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).[11] Environment Canada reported in 2011 that there were approximately 34,000 boreal caribou in 51 ranges remaining in Canada.(Environment Canada, 2011b).[12] Siberian tundra reindeer herd are in decline. For this reason, Rangifer tarandus is considered to be vulnerable by the IUCN.