Animal · Norway, Sweden, Finland
Reindeer
Rangifer tarandus — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The reindeer, also called caribou in North America, is a hardy deer built to survive in the freezing Arctic tundra. It is the only deer species where both males and females grow antlers.
Picture credit: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Ad Meskens (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Giles Laurent (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the reindeer live?
Home: Arctic tundra and northern forests.
In the wild you find it in: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Canada, United States, Greenland.
Conservation status from the IUCN: vulnerable.
The short profile
Fully grown it measures up to 2.2 m long. It weighs about 110 kilograms. On the menu: plants.
The story behind it
A reindeer's nose is specially designed with tightly curled bones inside called turbinates, which warm freezing Arctic air before it reaches the lungs and even help detect food buried under snow by smell. Its hooves change shape with the seasons, spreading wide and firm in summer for walking on soft tundra, then tightening in winter to grip ice and dig through snow to find lichen, its main winter food. Some reindeer herds undertake one of the longest land migrations of any mammal, travelling over 1,000 km each year between summer and winter grounds. Reindeer herding has been part of life for Arctic peoples like the Sami for thousands of years. Climate change and shrinking tundra have made the species vulnerable today.
Find it on the globe
Reindeer is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Do both male and female reindeer have antlers?
Yes, reindeer are the only deer species where females also grow antlers, not just males. Females often keep theirs through winter to defend feeding spots, while many males shed theirs earlier after the autumn mating season.
How far do reindeer migrate?
Some wild reindeer herds travel over 1,000 km each year between summer feeding grounds and winter shelter, one of the longest land migrations made by any mammal on Earth.
Why are reindeer vulnerable?
Reindeer are classed as vulnerable mainly because a warming Arctic climate is changing snow and ice patterns, making it harder for them to reach lichen under the snow, while roads, mining and other development fragment their migration routes.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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