As we walked to the study site today we were greeted by two groups of caribou. The larger group moved over the hill on the west side of the experiments and soon was out of site. The smaller group decided to stick around so I took this opportunity to observe and photograph the three animals as they grazed on the tundra. I have seen caribou before but I don't know a whole lot about them. So I read a little today and did some research and thought that I would share some information with you.
Today we were greeted by three beautiful caribou
Caribou belong to the deer family or mammals. They can grow up to five feet tall and weigh over 500 pounds. These animals can be found living throughout the arctic tundra of Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. In fact, in most of the world they are not called caribou; they are called reindeer. Around here if they are domesticated they are known as reindeer. Only the wild animals are referred to as caribou.
Even though they look like deer, they are different from other members of their family in many ways. Caribou are very well adapted to life in the cold and the snow. They have a very warm fur that is soft, which is made up of hollow hair. The space inside the hairs trap air and insulate the animal from the cold. The fur also is very good at shedding water and snow. Their fur is so good at keeping them dry and warm that it has been used by the people of the Arctic for thousands of years. Then in the 1800's, hunters began to trade the fur for a lot of money. They were hunted so much that laws had to be passed to protect the population.
Dr. Natali wanted to get a closer look.
When you see a caribou grazing on the tundra they are not just eating the plants like other deer. The caribou eat moss and lichen. Even during the winters with snow on the ground the caribou can shovel snow with their antlers to get at the food that is underneath. Part of the reason that they travel so much is that the lichen grows very slow, so they must keep eating from different places to give the lichen time to recover.
Also to help them in the snow they have long thin legs that have a cooler circulation system. The blood that runs through the legs is much colder than the rest of the body. This keeps heat from being lost in the snow. At the end of those skinny legs are hooves that are low and wide. These act as small snow shoes and keep the animal from sinking down. The thick layer of fat under the skin helps to keep the cold away too.
Both the male and the female can grow antlers. These antlers are dark with velvet coatings.
Both the male and the female caribou grow antlers. When the antlers are developing, between April and August, they are covered in velvet. While they are in this velvet stage the antlers have a lot of blood running through them. If an animal breaks an antler they could have a serious loss of blood.
Caribou migrate each year over 800 miles. They travel from the northeastern part of Alaska, all the way to the Northwest Territories of Canada. They most often travel in herds so that they can eat and watch out for predators. Most of the animals they need to watch out for are Golden Eagles, wolves, and Grizzly bears.
I think they are very beautiful animals. The velvet on their antlers looks so soft that you just want to touch it! And I thought they might be the perfect animals to talk about on Friday the 13th, Caribooooo!
The caribou feed on the lichen and mosses in the tundra, along with some of the other plants.