TRIBUTE TO CARIBOU

Photo Courtesy of Aylmer Lake Lodge

Caribou, pronounced KAR uh boo, is the French-Canadian name for a large deer of North America that is closely related to the reindeer. Caribou have broad hoofs to support them in deep snow and spongy tundra.

They have broad antlers, and the male's antlers grow much larger than the female's. The female caribou is the only American female deer besides the female reindeer that has antlers.

A bull (male) caribou weighs from 250 to 700 pounds (113 to 320 kilograms), stands 4 to 5 feet (1.2 to 1.5 meters) tall, and measures 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 meters) long.

A cow (female) is smaller than a bull. Cows give birth to one calf in late spring. There are two main types of caribou--barren ground and woodland.

Barren-ground caribou spend the summer in the Arctic tundra and the winter in the evergreen forests south of the tundra. They may be found from western Alaska to western Greenland. In the western part of their range, they live in large herds.

Roaming caribou cover the land for days at a time. They do not overgraze their range because they keep moving from place to place. In summer, they eat mostly grass and leaves of various shrubs. In winter, they live mostly on lichens.