Animals

The caribou is in the order of Artioldactyl and is a member of the deer family. It looks like a large mule deer or small elk with soft hollow hair, long legs, large hooves and large antlers.

In Alaska, 97 to 99 percent of the females have antlers as well as the males. Both male and female caribou have blunt muzzles with hair all the way down to the muzzle.

Typical coloration of the Caribou is brown, shaggy fur with a whitish neck and mane. The muzzle is large and blunt with short and broad ears and a short tail. Large, crescent shaped hooves which have sharp edges ensure good footing. The antlers of adult male Caribou are massive compared to those of the female and are erect and spreading with flattened brow tines that point forward and downward over the forehead.

Caribou are wild, if they are domesticated they are called reindeer. Eurasians do not use the name caribou at all, they use the terms wild and domestic reindeer. Arctic people hunt caribou for the good meat and warm hide so they have names for caribou to specify age and gender; three of them are pagnnig (adult bull), julanak (adult female) and norraq (calf).

The Caribou inhabits the arctic tundra, alpine tundra and northern boreal forests of North America, Russia, Norway, Sweden and Finland. In the European countries, Caribou are called reindeer. They reside throughout all of British Columbia in the Coast Mountains to the Rockies and in the Columbia, Selkirk and Monashee Mountain ranges.