Feral reindeer

Reindeer Temporal range: to present PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Reindeer in Norway
Conservation status
Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Cervidae
Subfamily:	Capreolinae
Tribe:	Rangiferini
Genus:	Rangifer C.H. Smith, 1827
Species:	R. tarandus
Binomial name
Rangifer tarandus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Reindeer habitat divided into North American (green) and Eurasian (red) parts
Synonyms
Cervus tarandus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Cervus tarandus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), also known as the caribou in North America, is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, sub-Arctic, tundra, boreal and mountainous regions of northern Europe, Siberia and North America. This includes both sedentary and migratory populations. Rangifer herd size varies greatly in different geographic regions. The Taimyr herd of migrating Siberian tundra reindeer (R. t. sibiricus) in Russia is the largest wild reindeer herd in the world, with numbers varying between 400,000 and 1,000,000. What was once the second largest herd is the migratory boreal woodland caribou (R. t. caribou) George River herd in Canada, with former variations between 28,000 and 385,000. As of January 2018, there are fewer than 9,000 animals estimated to be left in the George River herd as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The New York Times in April 2018 similarly reported of the disappearance of the only herd of southern mountain caribous in the lower 48 states, with an expert calling it "functionally extinct" after the herd's size dwindled to a mere three animals.

Rangifer varies in size and colour from the smallest, the Svalbard reindeer, to the largest, the boreal woodland caribou. The North American range of caribou extends from Alaska through the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut into the boreal forest and south through the Canadian Rockies and the Columbia and Selkirk Mountains. The barren-ground, Porcupine and Peary caribou live in the tundra, while the shy boreal woodland caribou prefer the boreal forest. Two major subspecies in North America, the Porcupine caribou and the barren-ground caribou, form large herds and undertake lengthy seasonal migrations from birthing grounds, to summer and winter feeding grounds in the tundra and taiga. The migrations of Porcupine caribou herds are among the longest of any terrestrial mammal. Barren-ground caribou are also found in Kitaa in Greenland, but the larger herds are in Alaska, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.