Reindeer (Caribou)

Mating occurs in October and November or at the beginning of southerly migration, or once the female has her fawn.

During the rutting season the polygamous bull chases the female. The male chases only one female at a time until he mates and then on to the next female.

After the mating is complete, herd move south and the adult bulls separate from the female and juvenile reindeer. Each herd migrates to an area with enough food, water, and safekeeping from predators.

The newborn calves can stand in about 1/2 hour after birth, run after 1 1/2 hour, and run with the herd within a day. The newborn calves begins to eat solid foods in two weeks and may keep on nursing into the wintertime.

The most superb migrations are by the reindeer inhabiting the tundra in the northwest, that science calls the "Barren Ground Caribou."

Moving in the morning and the evening, the reindeer can run at speeds of nearly 50 miles per hour for a short time. The animal's soft foot pads assist them with traction and skillful weight allotment on the boggy summer tundra. In the winter their pads shrink, hardened, and are covered with tufts of hair. The hard hoof rim cuts into ice or crusted snow to stop slipping.

In summer, the diet of the reindeer consists of lichens, mushrooms, grasses, sedges, and many other green plants, twigs of birches and willows, and fruit. In winter their diet consists of lichens, their main food, augmented by horsetails, sedges, willow and birch twigs. The animals loss weight in the winter because their food intake is reduced. The reindeer demand forage in summer to supply the energy needed for reproduction, development, and staying alive in the winter months.

If the female doesn't build up enough energy reserves she will not breed. In autumn the males fattens up to nourish himself through the rut when be hardly eats.

Usually silent, the reindeer may give a loud snort making them sound like pigs.

The main predators of reindeer are humans and wolves. Other animals that prey on the young reindeer are grizzly bears, wolverines, lynx, and golden eagles.

The Caribou has been a major source of food and clothing for native people of the far north like the Laplanders and Eskimos.

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