They move around during the year in order to find the best shelter and nutrients. Appearance: Caribou have dense, chocolate-brown coats of hair with a white neck and flank backside. They have two layers of fur to keep them extra warm a tougher outer coat of hair as well as a soft and wooly undercoat. Their hair contains air pockets that helps to keep the animal warm and also makes them more buoyant while swimming.
Caribou have wide, fur covered feet that help them stay warm and move through diverse terrain. The hooves have a hollow like shape right at the bottom with sharp edges. These characteristic allow their hooves to act as snowshoes during the winter. Interestingly, the shape of the hooves are also great for travelling through water like paddles. Male — description: Male caribou also referred to as bulls are about kg.
An easy way to tell the difference between females and males is by the size of the antlers; male caribou have larger antlers. Bulls also have larger white spots around their necks—especially leading up to mating season when the male neck becomes bigger to prepare for ruts see mating section. Female — description: Female caribou also referred to as cows are under kg. They have straighter antlers that don't curve and branch as much. Cows also retain their antlers through the winter until they give birth, making it easier to forage for food.
Antlers: Caribou antlers are very large. They grow on the male and female, the antlers of male caribou are larger. Each year in March, the antlers start to grow but are covered in a special fuzzy skin called velvet. Large herds of reindeer, the domesticated form of caribou, roam parts of western Alaska. Caribou belong to the deer family and like all members of this family, they grow and shed their antlers each year. However, caribou are the only species in which both sexes grow antlers.
The annual growth and shedding of the antlers differs between the sexes. Velvet knobs appear on the bulls in March, and their antlers grow rapidly over the summer so that by August they carry large velvet covered antlers up to 3 or 4 feet in length. The bony core is nourished by the blood soaked velvet which begins to strip off as the antler hardens by mid- September.
These antlers are primarily sexual ornaments in preparation for the fall rutt, their breeding season. By November or December the older bulls begin to drop them and by February most of the younger animals have dropped their antlers as well. The cows antlers are more slender and much shorter. They produce a single calf which weighs from 10 to 20 pounds and is amazingly precocious, being able to travel with the mother within an hour of its birth.
There are actually 7 main subspecies of caribou in the Northern Hemisphere, each perfectly adapted to the harsh habitats they occupy. By far the most spectacular caribou populations that use the Arctic tundra and tiaga are the barren-ground caribou. These northerly herds have long migrations and huge numbers. Other populations in the state are smaller and have shorter migration routes.
They have nostrils that are specially designed for living in the colder regions. The air that is taken in is warmed up by the nostrils before it is used in the body. This helps to keep their body temperature where it should be. They also feature two layers of fur instead of just one. The bottom layer is thick and wooly. This too offers them protection from the bitter cold. The top layer consists of thin hairs that are very long.
They also have vents that allow air to circulate through them. The hooves of the Reindeer are very interesting to take a closer look at. They change in structure for the different times of the year. During the summer these animals need to have more traction because the ground is muddy and slippery. That is when the hooves are sponge like.
In the winter though they become very hard so that they can be used as tools. The Reindeer need to be able to dig in the frozen ground to get to sources of food. It is believed that they were once living in the same locations as other deer. Their size likely helped them initially, but then changes in the body too place that helped them to be able to survive there. The unique nostrils and the second layer of fur on them are believed to be two features of evolution that allows the Reindeer to survive.
It is also believed that they were smaller animals but got larger in order to have the ability to store up fat for surviving the harsh winters. Caribous tend to form small herds and they seem to live a quiet existence within it but they may form large groups with tens of thousands individuals in the summer months.
They are more vocal than most species of deer though. They use grunts and other sounds to communicate with each other. They also do very well in various environments as well as in captivity. The Caribou has quite a diverse habitat out there that they are able to live in. They tend to live where it is much colder than for other species of deer.
They live in the Sub Arctic and Arctic regions.
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