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This woolly member of the deer family (both the real and mythological kind) is well equipped for winter. Take your trivia to new heights with these five facts.
Did you know that Santa’s favourite deer is also the one featured on the Canadian quarter? That’s right. Reindeer and caribou are the same species: Rangifer tarandus. Here are five more facts that you may not know about the reindeer, er, the caribou.
- The naming game: Canada has several subspecies of caribou — separate populations with different habitat preferences, dietary needs, and physical traits. Woodland caribou are the most widespread subspecies in Canada; the majority of our populations are found in boreal forests from Labrador to B.C. Other subspecies, for example, barren ground caribou and Peary caribou, stick largely to the Northern regions of the country.
- Best in snow: Winter is a woodland caribou’s time to shine. They’re the largest subspecies, with long legs suitable for plowing through deep drifts; a stocky body to help conserve heat; and concave hooves that they can use, shovel-like, to dig up snow- or ice-covered food. This behaviour could be the reason behind the caribou’s Mi’kmaq name, xalibu, which means “the one who paws.”
- It’s gut check time: On the topic of food, about two thirds of a woodland caribou’s winter diet is lichen — an organism composed of a fungus and an alga. (Sounds…delicious?) This hardy non-plant can grow in even extreme cold or low-water conditions. Lichen would be almost indigestible to most large mammals, but caribou have special protozoa and bacteria in their guts that allows them to draw nutrients from it.
- What’s that on your head? Unlike any other deer species, both the male and the female caribou have antlers. (Caveat: a small percentage of females, for example, those in habitats where food is scarce — don’t grow antlers; one reason why may be because growing antlers takes a lot of energy.) As with moose, caribou bulls shed their antlers in November or December. Females keep their headgear through the winter. Which means that all of Santa’s reindeer — even Rudolph — are female. Mind. Blown.
- Let there be light: Some caribou can alter the colour of their eyes. Research shows that those living in regions with near 24-hour darkness in the winter have eyes that change from gold to blue when the cold season hits. It’s the tapetum lucidum (a reflective layer behind the retina) that changes and allows the animal’s eye to become more sensitive to light. This helps them see in the dark — and therefore, we assume, successfully navigate the night sky on December 24th.
Want more wild facts? Read up about Beavers and the Red Maple.
