Reindeer

About the Reindeer

Reindeer — caribou in North America — are the only deer in which both sexes grow antlers, and the only deer to have been widely domesticated. They are circumpolar, occupying tundra, taiga and mountain across the far north, and some populations undertake the longest overland migrations of any land mammal.

How it lives

Their hooves change with the season, spreading wide and soft in summer for boggy ground and hardening to a sharp rim in winter for cutting through crusted snow to reach lichen. Lichen is the winter staple and takes decades to regrow once grazed. Reindeer see into the ultraviolet, which makes lichen and wolf fur stand out against snow that would otherwise be featureless. Calves are born within a tight window in spring and can outrun a person within a day.

Where it lives

Migrates across tundra in enormous herds, digging for moss in snow. Its main habitat is the Arctic & Tundra, where the climate is long frozen winters far below 0°C and a short, cool summer.

Notable facts

• Both males and females grow antlers.
• Their eyes change colour from gold in summer to blue in winter.
• Also known as caribou in North America.

Conservation

Reindeer are listed as vulnerable, with many wild herds — particularly the migratory barren-ground caribou of North America and the wild reindeer of Eurasia — having declined steeply. The causes stack: warming winters bring rain-on-snow events that seal the lichen under ice, industrial development and roads cut migration routes, and increased shrub growth changes the tundra. Domestic and semi-domestic herds remain numerous, which masks the wild decline in headline figures.

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