138-721: See text , traditionally 1, but possibly up to 6 The reindeer or caribou ( Rangifer tarandus ) is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution , native to Arctic , subarctic , tundra , boreal , and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only representative of the genus Rangifer . More recent studies suggest the splitting of reindeer and caribou into six distinct species over their range. Reindeer occur in both migratory and sedentary populations, and their herd sizes vary greatly in different regions. The tundra subspecies are adapted for extreme cold, and some are adapted for long-distance migration. Reindeer vary greatly in size and color from
276-579: A Dene (Athapascan) group, call the Arctic caribou Ɂekwǫ̀ and the boreal woodland caribou tǫdzı . The Gwichʼin (also a Dene group) have over 24 distinct caribou-related words. Reindeer are also called tuttu by the Greenlandic Inuit and hreindýr , sometimes rein , by the Icelanders . The "glacial-interglacial cycles of the upper Pleistocene had a major influence on
414-461: A boreal forest hosting a species assemblage with no modern analogue. These are among the oldest DNA fragments ever sequenced. Carl Linnaeus in 1758 named the Eurasian tundra species Cervus tarandus , the genus Rangifer being credited to Smith, 1827. Rangifer has had a convoluted history because of the similarity in antler architecture (brow tines asymmetrical and often palmate, bez tines,
552-514: A clade sister to Cervidae. According to the study, Cervidae diverged from the Bovidae-Moschidae clade 27 to 28 million years ago. The following cladogram is based on the 2003 study. Tragulidae [REDACTED] Antilocapridae [REDACTED] Giraffidae [REDACTED] Cervidae [REDACTED] Bovidae [REDACTED] Mountain reindeer The mountain reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus tarandus ), also called
690-719: A liver without a gallbladder . Deer also have a tapetum lucidum , which gives them sufficiently good night vision . All male deer have antlers , with the exception of the water deer , in which males have long tusk-like canines that reach below the lower jaw. Females generally lack antlers, though female reindeer bear antlers smaller and less branched than those of the males. Occasionally females in other species may develop antlers, especially in telemetacarpal deer such as European roe deer, red deer, white-tailed deer and mule deer and less often in plesiometacarpal deer. A study of antlered female white-tailed deer noted that antlers tend to be small and malformed, and are shed frequently around
828-460: A Captain Craycott had brought a live pair from Greenland to England in 1738. He named it Capra groenlandicus , Greenland reindeer. Linnaeus, in the 12th edition of Systema naturae , gave grœnlandicus as a synonym for Cervus tarandus . Borowski disagreed (and again changed the spelling), saying Cervus grönlandicus was morphologically distinct from Eurasian tundra reindeer. Baird placed it under
966-452: A back tine sometimes branched, and branched at the distal end, often palmate). Because of individual variability, early taxonomists were unable to discern consistent patterns among populations, nor could they, examining collections in Europe, appreciate the difference in habitats and the differing function they imposed on antler architecture. Comparative morphometrics, the measurement of skulls,
1104-406: A broad central portion), white-tailed deer antlers include a series of tines sprouting upward from a forward-curving main beam, and those of the pudú are mere spikes. Antler development begins from the pedicel, a bony structure that appears on the top of the skull by the time the animal is a year old. The pedicel gives rise to a spiky antler the following year, that is replaced by a branched antler in
1242-775: A broad, high muzzle to increase the volume of the nasal cavity to warm and moisten the air before it enters the throat and lungs, bez tines set close to the brow tines, distinctive coat patterns, short legs and other adaptations for running long distances, and multiple behaviors suited to tundra, but not to forest (such as synchronized calving and aggregation during rutting and post-calving). As well, many genes, including those for vitamin D metabolism, fat metabolism , retinal development, circadian rhythm , and tolerance to cold temperatures, are found in tundra caribou that are lacking or rudimentary in forest types. For this reason, forest-adapted reindeer and caribou could not survive in tundra or polar deserts . The oldest undoubted Rangifer fossil
1380-439: A direct common ancestor , they cannot be Biological specificity#conspecific|conspecific. Similarly, woodland caribou diverged from the ancestors of Arctic caribou before modern barren-ground caribou had evolved, and were more likely related to extinct North American forest reindeer (see Evolution above). Lacking a direct shared ancestor, barren-ground and woodland caribou cannot be conspecific. Molecular data also revealed that
1518-456: A disease which in the UK in 2005 cost £90 million in attempts to eradicate. In New Zealand, deer are thought to be important as vectors picking up M. bovis in areas where brushtail possums Trichosurus vulpecula are infected, and transferring it to previously uninfected possums when their carcasses are scavenged elsewhere. The white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus has been confirmed as
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#17327719380111656-609: A forest subspecies, formerly included reindeer west of the Sea of Okhotsk which, however, are indistinguishable genetically from the Jano-Indigirka, East Siberian taiga and Chukotka populations of R. t. sibiricus . Siberian tundra reindeer herds have been in decline but are stable or increasing since 2000. Insular (island) reindeer, classified as the Novaya Zemlya reindeer ( R. t. pearsoni ) occupy several island groups:
1794-522: A huge role as a game-hunting animal, a source of food and an alternative choice to pull ploughs when horses were unavailable. Domestic reindeer — which are technically only semi-domesticated, as they will still run wild if given the chance — are one of the most common sources of meat in Norway, particularly in the north, where the Sami people reside, and where domestic cattle are rarer because they cannot survive
1932-425: A large scale in the world. Both wild and domestic reindeer have been an important source of food, clothing, and shelter for Arctic people from prehistorical times. They are still herded and hunted today. In some traditional Christmas legends, Santa Claus's reindeer pull a sleigh through the night sky to help Santa Claus deliver gifts to good children on Christmas Eve. Names follow international convention before
2070-723: A mtDNA haplotype with Labrador caribou, in the North American lineage (i.e., woodland caribou). Røed et al. (1991) had noted: Among Baffin Island caribou the TFL2 allele was the most common allele (p=0.521), while this allele was absent, or present in very low frequencies, in other caribou populations (Table 1), including the Canadian barren-ground caribou from the Beverly herd. A large genetic difference between Baffin Island caribou and
2208-555: A nearly complete skeleton of Diacodexis discovered in 1982 gave rise to speculation that this ancestor could be closer to the non-ruminants than the ruminants. Andromeryx is another prominent prehistoric ruminant, but appears to be closer to the tragulids . The formation of the Himalayas and the Alps brought about significant geographic changes. This was the chief reason behind the extensive diversification of deer-like forms and
2346-811: A new revision of the genus. Abbreviations: The table above includes, as per the recent revision, R. t. caboti (the Labrador caribou (the Eastern Migratory population DU4)), and R. t. terranovae (the Newfoundland caribou (the Newfoundland population DU5)), which molecular analyses have shown to be of North American (i.e., woodland caribou) lineage; and four mountain ecotypes now known to be of distant Beringia - Eurasia lineage (see Taxonomy above). The scientific name Tarandus rangifer buskensis Millais, 1915 (the Busk Mountains reindeer)
2484-437: A predator-avoidance strategy, which requires large rutting aggregations. Males cannot defend a harem because, while he was busy fighting, they would disappear into the mass of the herd. Males therefore tend individual females; their fights are infrequent and brief. Their antlers are thin, beams round in cross-section, sweep back and then forward with a cluster of branches at the top; these are designed more for visual stimulation of
2622-543: A result of acclimatisation society releases in the 19th century, Australia has six introduced species of deer that have established sustainable wild populations. They are fallow deer, red deer, sambar, hog deer, rusa , and chital. Red deer were introduced into New Zealand in 1851 from English and Scottish stock. Many have been domesticated in deer farms since the late 1960s and are common farm animals there now. Seven other species of deer were introduced into New Zealand but none are as widespread as red deer. Deer constitute
2760-545: A scathing review by Ian McTaggart-Cowan in 1962. Most authorities continued to consider all or most subspecies valid; some were quite distinct. In his chapter in the authoritative 2005 reference work Mammal Species of the World , referenced by the American Society of Mammalogists , English zoologist Peter Grubb agreed with Valerius Geist , a specialist on large mammals, that these subspecies were valid (i.e., before
2898-490: A smaller form, but a combination of anthropogenic and climatic pressures is now thought to be the most likely culprit. Meanwhile, the moose and reindeer radiated into North America from Siberia. Deer constitute the artiodactyl family Cervidae. This family was first described by German zoologist Georg August Goldfuss in Handbuch der Zoologie (1820). Three subfamilies were recognised: Capreolinae (first described by
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#17327719380113036-771: A very interesting history. Allen (1902) named it as a distinct species, R. granti , from the "western end of Alaska Peninsula , opposite Popoff Island " and noting that: Rangifer granti is a representative of the Barren Ground group of Caribou, which includes R. arcticus of the Arctic Coast and R. granlandicus of Greenland. It is not closely related to R. stonei of the Kenai Peninsula, from which it differs not only in its very much smaller size, but in important cranial characters and in coloration. ...The external and cranial differences between R. granti and
3174-783: A wide variety of vegetation. The teeth of deer are adapted to feeding on vegetation, and like other ruminants, they lack upper incisors , instead having a tough pad at the front of their upper jaw. Deer are browsers , and feed primarily on foliage of grasses , sedges , forbs , shrubs and trees , secondarily on lichens in northern latitudes during winter. They have small, unspecialized stomachs by ruminant standards, and high nutrition requirements. Rather than eating and digesting vast quantities of low-grade fibrous food as, for example, sheep and cattle do, deer select easily digestible shoots, young leaves, fresh grasses, soft twigs, fruit, fungi , and lichens . The low-fibered food, after minimal fermentation and shredding, passes rapidly through
3312-499: A wild animal of any kind. Cognates of Old English dēor in other dead Germanic languages have the general sense of animal , such as Old High German tior , Old Norse djur or dȳr , Gothic dius , Old Saxon dier , and Old Frisian diar . This general sense gave way to the modern English sense by the end of the Middle English period, around 1500. All modern Germanic languages save English and Scots retain
3450-509: Is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family ). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac , elk (wapiti), red deer , and fallow deer ) and Capreolinae (which includes, among others reindeer (caribou), white-tailed deer , roe deer , and moose ). Male deer of almost all species (except the water deer ), as well as female reindeer, grow and shed new antlers each year. These antlers are bony extensions of
3588-595: Is between 70,000 and 80,000, with the largest numbers found in Sør-Trøndelag , Nord-Trøndelag and northern Hedmark . A smaller population, 6,000 to 7,000, is found in Hardangervidda. The wild populations are indirectly controlled by the Norwegian government. Mountain reindeer in Norway were totally protected from 1902 to 1906. However, a few years after that, the population sank again. In the 3411s, it
3726-590: Is essential because reindeer limbs are often kept much colder than core body temperature, a phenomenon known as regional heterothermy . In warmer temperatures, reindeer can also switch from nasal breathing to open mouth panting for evaporative cooling. The northern and southern populations were once considered the same subspecies. However, genetic analysis shows that the reindeer found in Dovrefjell , in central Norway, are related to reindeer in Beringia , whereas
3864-508: Is from Latin : cervus , meaning ' stag ' or ' deer ' . Deer live in a variety of biomes , ranging from tundra to the tropical rainforest . While often associated with forests, many deer are ecotone species that live in transitional areas between forests and thickets (for cover) and prairie and savanna (open space). The majority of large deer species inhabit temperate mixed deciduous forest, mountain mixed coniferous forest, tropical seasonal/dry forest, and savanna habitats around
4002-576: Is from Omsk , Russia, dated to 2.1-1.8 Ma. The oldest North American Rangifer fossil is from the Yukon , 1.6 million years before present (BP). A fossil skull fragment from Süßenborn, Germany, R. arcticus stadelmanni , (which is probably misnamed) with "rather thin and cylinder-shaped" antlers, dates to the Middle Pleistocene (Günz) Period, 680,000-620,000 BP. Rangifer fossils become increasingly frequent in circumpolar deposits beginning with
4140-421: Is mostly pale brown with white rumps and, in some genetic variations, black legs and creamy-white necks. Their winter coat can be cream-white with beige shoulders and backs, or completely cream-white. The mountain reindeer has several physiological adaptations to cope with different environmental temperatures. Reindeer have hemoglobin that allows for high oxygen unloading even at very cold temperatures. This
4278-471: Is necessary with R. montanus or with any of the woodland forms." Osgood and Murie (1935), agreeing with granti ' s close relationship with the barren-ground caribou, brought it under R. arcticus as a subspecies, R. t. granti . Anderson (1946) and Banfield (1961), based on statistical analysis of cranial, dental and other characters, agreed. But Banfield (1961) also synonymized Alaska's large R. stonei with other mountain caribou of British Columbia and
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4416-662: Is often seen as more objective than description of differences of color or antler patterns, but actually confounds genetic variance with epistatic and statistical variance as well as compounded environment-based variance. For example, woodland caribou males, rutting in boreal forest where only a few females can be found, collect harems and defend them against other males, for which they have short, straight, strong, much-branched antlers, beams flattened in cross-section, designed for combat — and not too large, so as not to impede them in forested winter ranges. By contrast, modern tundra caribou (see Evolution above) have synchronized calving as
4554-452: Is only slightly taller and heavier. Sexual dimorphism is quite pronounced – in most species males tend to be larger than females, and, except for the reindeer, only males have antlers. Coat colour generally varies between red and brown, though it can be as dark as chocolate brown in the tufted deer or have a grayish tinge as in elk. Different species of brocket deer vary from gray to reddish brown in coat colour. Several species such as
4692-412: Is strong enough to walk with its mother. The fawn and its mother stay together for about one year. A male usually leaves and never sees his mother again, but females sometimes come back with their own fawns and form small herds. In some areas of the UK, deer (especially fallow deer due to their gregarious behaviour ) have been implicated as a possible reservoir for transmission of bovine tuberculosis ,
4830-501: Is the moose , which is nearly 2.6 metres (8 ft 6 in) tall and weighs up to 800 kilograms (1,800 lb). The elk stands 1.4–2 metres (4 ft 7 in – 6 ft 7 in) at the shoulder and weighs 240–450 kilograms (530–990 lb). The northern pudu is the smallest deer in the world; it reaches merely 32–35 centimetres ( 12 + 1 ⁄ 2 –14 in) at the shoulder and weighs 3.3–6 kilograms ( 7 + 1 ⁄ 4 – 13 + 1 ⁄ 4 lb). The southern pudu
4968-647: The Barbary stag , a subspecies of red deer that is confined to the Atlas Mountains in the northwest of the continent. Another extinct species of deer, Megaceroides algericus , was present in North Africa until 6000 years ago. Fallow deer have been introduced to South Africa . Small species of brocket deer and pudús of Central and South America , and muntjacs of Asia generally occupy dense forests and are less often seen in open spaces, with
5106-495: The Caucasus Mountains have forest areas that are not only home to sizable deer populations but also other animals that were once abundant such as the wisent, Eurasian lynx , Iberian lynx , wolves , and brown bears . The highest concentration of large deer species in temperate Asia occurs in the mixed deciduous forests, mountain coniferous forests, and taiga bordering North Korea, Manchuria (Northeastern China), and
5244-594: The Early Pleistocene (2 million years ago) Kap Kobenhavn Formation of northern Greenland identified preserved DNA fragments of Rangifer , identified as basal but potentially ancestral to modern reindeer. This suggests that reindeer have inhabited Greenland since at least the Early Pleistocene. Around this time, northern Greenland was 11–19 °C (20–34 °F) warmer than the Holocene , with
5382-737: The Last Glacial Period until the present day. In the non-forested mountains of central Norway, such as Jotunheimen , it is still possible to find remains of stone-built trapping pits , guiding fences and bow rests, built especially for hunting reindeer. These can, with some certainty, be dated to the Migration Period , although it is not unlikely that they have been in use since the Stone Age . Cave paintings by ancient Europeans include both tundra and forest types of reindeer. A 2022 study of ancient environmental DNA from
5520-799: The Late Miocene , 8.7–9.6 million years ago. Rangifer "evolved as a mountain deer, ...exploiting the subalpine and alpine meadows...". Rangifer originated in the Late Pliocene and diversified in the Early Pleistocene , a 2+ million-year period of multiple glacier advances and retreats. Several named Rangifer fossils in Eurasia and North America predate the evolution of modern tundra reindeer. Archaeologists distinguish "modern" tundra reindeer and barren-ground caribou from primitive forms – living and extinct – that did not have adaptations to extreme cold and to long-distance migration. They include
5658-564: The Mi'kmaq qalipu , meaning "snow shoveler", and refers to its habit of pawing through the snow for food. Because of its importance to many cultures, Rangifer and some of its species and subspecies have names in many languages. Inuvialuit of the western Canadian Arctic and Inuit of the eastern Canadian Arctic, who speak different dialects of the Inuit languages , both call the barren-ground caribou tuktu . The Wekʼèezhìi ( Tłı̨chǫ ) people,
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5796-832: The Norwegian reindeer, northern reindeer , common reindeer or mountain caribou , is a mid-sized to large subspecies of the reindeer that is native to the western Scandinavian Peninsula , particularly Norway . In Norway, it is called fjellrein , villrein or tundra-rein . Mountain reindeer are medium to large even-toed ungulates with a thick double coat that protects them from the Norwegian winter. Male reindeer (bulls) weigh on average 70 to 150 kg (154 to 331 pounds), while females (cows) weigh on average 40 to 100 kg (88 to 220 pounds). Both bulls and cows have antlers, but cows do not use them to battle one another; instead, like some bovids , they use their antlers to defend food or territory from intruders. Their summer coat
5934-714: The Novaya Zemlya Archipelago (about 5,000 animals at last count, but most of these are either domestic reindeer or domestic-wild hybrids), the New Siberia Archipelago (about 10,000 to 15,000), and Wrangel Island (200 to 300 feral domestic reindeer). What was once the second largest herd is the migratory Labrador caribou ( R. t. caboti ) 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
6072-637: The Pleistocene have been excavated in China and the Himalayas. While Cervus and Dama appeared nearly 3 Mya, Axis emerged during the late Pliocene–Pleistocene. The tribes Capreolini and Rangiferini appeared around 4–7 Mya. Around 5 Mya, the rangiferina † Bretzia and † Eocoileus were the first cervids to reach North America. This implies the Bering Strait could be crossed during
6210-674: The Queen Charlotte Islands caribou ( R. t. dawsoni ) from western Canada, the Sakhalin reindeer ( R. t. setoni ) from Sakhalin and the East Greenland caribou from eastern Greenland, although some authorities believe that the latter, R. t. eogroenlandicus Degerbøl, 1957, is a junior synonym of the Peary caribou. Historically, the range of the sedentary boreal woodland caribou covered more than half of Canada and into
6348-599: The Riss glaciations , the second youngest of the Pleistocene Epoch, roughly 300,000–130,000 BP. By the 4-Würm period (110,000–70,000 to 12,000–10,000 BP), its European range was extensive, supplying a major food source for prehistoric Europeans. North American fossils outside of Beringia that predate the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) are of Rancholabrean age (240,000–11,000 years BP) and occur along
6486-907: The Sami people of Finland and Scandinavia, the Tungusic peoples, Mongolians, and Turkic peoples of Southern Siberia, Northern Mongolia, and the Ussuri Region have also taken to raising semi-domesticated herds of Asian caribou. The highest concentration of large deer species in the tropics occurs in Southern Asia in India's Indo-Gangetic Plain Region and Nepal 's Terai Region. These fertile plains consist of tropical seasonal moist deciduous, dry deciduous forests, and both dry and wet savannas that are home to chital , hog deer , barasingha , Indian sambar , and Indian muntjac . Grazing species such as
6624-942: The Scandinavian mountains and R. t. sibiricus across Siberia) and east ( R. t. arcticus in the North American Barrenlands) when rising seas isolated them. Likewise in North America, DNA analysis shows that woodland caribou ( R. caribou ) diverged from primitive ancestors of tundra / barren-ground caribou not during the LGM, 26,000–19,000 years ago, as previously assumed, but in the Middle Pleistocene around 357,000 years ago. At that time, modern tundra caribou had not even evolved. Woodland caribou are likely more related to extinct North American forest caribou than to barren-ground caribou. For example,
6762-471: The Sámi word raingo . Carl Linnaeus chose the word tarandus as the specific epithet, making reference to Ulisse Aldrovandi 's Quadrupedum omnium bisulcorum historia fol. 859–863, Cap. 30: De Tarando (1621). However, Aldrovandi and Conrad Gessner thought that rangifer and tarandus were two separate animals. In any case, the tarandos name goes back to Aristotle and Theophrastus . The use of
6900-532: The Tethys Ocean disappeared to give way to vast stretches of grassland; these provided the deer with abundant protein-rich vegetation that led to the development of ornamental antlers and allowed populations to flourish and colonise areas. As antlers had become pronounced, the canines were either lost or became poorly represented (as in elk), probably because diet was no longer browse -dominated and antlers were better display organs. In muntjac and tufted deer,
7038-500: The coat of arms of Åland . Their economic importance includes the use of their meat as venison , their skins as soft, strong buckskin , and their antlers as handles for knives. Deer hunting has been a popular activity since the Middle Ages and remains a resource for many families today. The word deer was originally broad in meaning, becoming more specific with time. Old English dēor and Middle English der meant
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#17327719380117176-669: The contiguous United States . The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) classified both the Southern Mountain population DU9 ( R. t. montanus ) and the Central Mountain population DU8 ( R. t. fortidens ) as Endangered and the Northern Mountain population DU7 ( R. t. osborni ) as Threatened. Some species and subspecies are rare and three subspecies have already become extinct:
7314-493: The merycodontines eventually gave rise to the modern pronghorn. The Cervinae emerged as the first group of extant cervids around 7–9 Mya, during the late Miocene in central Asia. The tribe Muntiacini made its appearance as † Muntiacus leilaoensis around 7–8 Mya; The early muntjacs varied in size–as small as hares or as large as fallow deer. They had tusks for fighting and antlers for defence. Capreolinae followed soon after; Alceini appeared 6.4–8.4 Mya. Around this period,
7452-464: The photoperiod . Deer are also excellent jumpers and swimmers. Deer are ruminants , or cud-chewers, and have a four-chambered stomach. Some deer, such as those on the island of Rùm , do consume meat when it is available. Nearly all deer have a facial gland in front of each eye. The gland contains a strongly scented pheromone , used to mark its home range. Bucks of a wide range of species open these glands wide when angry or excited. All deer have
7590-864: The polar desert of the high Arctic Archipelago and Grant's caribou ( R. t. granti also called the Porcupine caribou ) lives in the western end of the Alaska Peninsula and the adjacent islands; the other four subspecies, Osborn's caribou ( R. t. osborni ), Stone's caribou ( R. t. stonei ), the Rocky Mountain caribou ( R. t. fortidens ) and the Selkirk Mountains caribou ( R. t. montanus ) are all montane . The extinct insular Queen Charlotte Islands caribou ( R. t. dawsoni ), lived on Graham Island in Haida Gwaii (formerly known as
7728-519: The tundra , taiga (boreal forest) and south through the Canadian Rocky Mountains . Of the eight subspecies classified by Harding (2022) into the Arctic caribou ( R. arcticus ), the migratory mainland barren-ground caribou of Arctic Alaska and Northern Canada ( R. t. arcticus ), summer in tundra and winter in taiga, a transitional forest zone between boreal forest and tundra; the nomadic Peary caribou ( R. t. pearyi ) lives in
7866-490: The Arctic caribou. Siberian tundra reindeer herds are also in decline, and Rangifer as a whole is considered to be Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Charles Hamilton Smith is credited with the name Rangifer for the reindeer genus, which Albertus Magnus used in his De animalibus , fol. Liber 22, Cap. 268: "Dicitur Rangyfer quasi ramifer". This word may go back to
8004-743: The Beverly herd was also indicated by eight alleles found in the Beverly herd which were absent from the Baffin Island samples. Jenkins et al. (2018) also reported genetic distinctiveness of Baffin Island caribou from all other barren-ground caribou; its genetic signature was not found on the mainland or on other islands; nor were Beverly herd (the nearest mainly barren-ground caribou) alleles present in Baffin Island caribou, evidence of reproductive isolation. These advances in Rangifer genetics were brought together with previous morphological-based descriptions, ecology, behavior and archaeology to propose
8142-549: The British Columbia side, and Banff National Park , Jasper National Park , and Glacier National Park (U.S.) on the Alberta and Montana sides. Mountain slope habitats vary from moist coniferous/mixed forested habitats to dry subalpine/pine forests with alpine meadows higher up. The foothills and river valleys between the mountain ranges provide a mosaic of cropland and deciduous parklands. The rare woodland caribou have
8280-511: The Cervidae, are believed to have evolved from Diacodexis , the earliest known artiodactyl (even-toed ungulate), 50–55 Mya in the Eocene. Diacodexis , nearly the size of a rabbit , featured the talus bone characteristic of all modern even-toed ungulates . This ancestor and its relatives occurred throughout North America and Eurasia, but were on the decline by at least 46 Mya. Analysis of
8418-465: The English zoologist Joshua Brookes in 1828), Cervinae (described by Goldfuss) and Hydropotinae (first described by French zoologist Édouard Louis Trouessart in 1898). Other attempts at the classification of deer have been based on morphological and genetic differences. The Anglo-Irish naturalist Victor Brooke suggested in 1878 that deer could be bifurcated into two classes on the according to
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#17327719380118556-650: The Eurasian reindeer radiation dates to the large Riss glaciation (347,000 to 128,000 years ago), based on the Norwegian-Svalbard split 225,000 years ago. Finnish forest reindeer ( R. t. fennicus ) likely evolved from Cervus [Rangifer] geuttardi Desmarest, 1822, a reindeer that adapted to forest habitats in Eastern Europe as forests expanded during an interglacial period before the LGM (the Würmian or Weichsel glaciation );. The fossil species geuttardi
8694-582: The European Dremotherium ; these sabre-toothed animals are believed to have been the direct ancestors of all modern antlered deer, though they themselves lacked antlers. Another contemporaneous form was the four-horned protoceratid Protoceras , that was replaced by Syndyoceras in the Miocene; these animals were unique in having a horn on the nose. Late Eocene fossils dated approximately 35 million years ago, which were found in North America, show that Syndyoceras had bony skull outgrowths that resembled non-deciduous antlers. Fossil evidence suggests that
8832-481: The George River herd, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . The New York Times reported in April 2018 of the disappearance of the only herd of southern mountain woodland caribou in the contiguous United States , with an expert calling it "functionally extinct" after the herd's size dwindled to a mere three animals. After the last individual, a female, was translocated to a wildlife rehabilitation center in Canada, caribou were considered extirpated from
8970-411: The Greenland caribou ( R. t. groenlandicus ) and the Svalbard reindeer ( R. t. platyrhynchus ), although not closely related to each other, were the most genetically divergent among Rangifer clades; that modern (see Evolution above) Eurasian tundra reindeer ( R. t. tarandus and R. t. sibiricus ) and North American barren-ground caribou ( R. t. arcticus ), although sharing ancestry, were separable at
9108-504: The Ice Ages, but afterwards became restricted primarily to the Anatolian Peninsula, in present-day Turkey. Present-day fallow deer populations in Europe are a result of historic man-made introductions of this species, first to the Mediterranean regions of Europe, then eventually to the rest of Europe. They were initially park animals that later escaped and reestablished themselves in the wild. Historically, Europe's deer species shared their deciduous forest habitat with other herbivores, such as
9246-514: The Indian Subcontinent) boasts the most species of deer in the world, with most species being found in Asia. Europe, in comparison, has lower diversity in plant and animal species. Many national parks and protected reserves in Europe have populations of red deer, roe deer , and fallow deer. These species have long been associated with the continent of Europe, but also inhabit Asia Minor , the Caucasus Mountains , and Northwestern Iran . "European" fallow deer historically lived over much of Europe during
9384-416: The Mammals of the World Vol. 2: Hoofed Mammals . Most Russian authors also recognized R. t. angustirostris , a forest reindeer from east of Lake Baikal . However, since 1991, many genetic studies have revealed deep divergence between modern tundra reindeer and woodland caribou. Geist (2007) and others continued arguing that the woodland caribou was incorrectly classified, noting that "true woodland caribou,
9522-429: The Queen Charlotte Islands). The boreal woodland caribou ( R. t. caribou ), lives in the boreal forest of northeastern Canada: the Labrador or Ungava caribou of northern Quebec and northern Labrador ( R. t. caboti ), and the Newfoundland caribou of Newfoundland ( R. t. terranovae ) have been found to be genetically in the woodland caribou lineage. In Eurasia, both wild and domestic reindeer are distributed across
9660-417: The Reindeer and Caribou, Genus Rangifer (1961), eliminated R. t. caboti (the Labrador caribou), R. t. osborni (Osborn's caribou — from British Columbia ) and R. t. terranovae (the Newfoundland caribou) as invalid and included only barren-ground caribou , renamed as R. t. groenlandicus (formerly R. arcticus ) and woodland caribou as R. t. caribou . However, Banfield made multiple errors, eliciting
9798-654: The Siberian forest reindeer ( R. t. valentinae , formerly called the Busk Mountains reindeer ( R. t. buskensis ) by American taxonomists) occupies the Altai and Ural Mountains . Male ("bull") and female ("cow") reindeer can grow antlers annually, although the proportion of females that grow antlers varies greatly between populations. Antlers are typically larger on males. Antler architecture varies by species and subspecies and, together with pelage differences, can often be used to distinguish between species and subspecies (see illustrations in Geist, 1991 and Geist, 1998). About 25,000 mountain reindeer ( R. t. tarandus ) still live in
9936-547: The Ussuri Region (Russia). These are among some of the richest deciduous and coniferous forests in the world where one can find Siberian roe deer , sika deer , elk, and moose. Asian caribou occupy the northern fringes of this region along the Sino-Russian border. Deer such as the sika deer, Thorold's deer , Central Asian red deer , and elk have historically been farmed for their antlers by Han Chinese , Turkic peoples , Tungusic peoples , Mongolians , and Koreans . Like
10074-560: The Yukon as invalid subspecies of woodland caribou, then R. t. caribou . This left the small, migratory barren-ground caribou of Alaska and the Yukon, including the Porcupine caribou herd, without a name, which Banfield rectified in his 1974 Mammals of Canada by extending to them the name " granti ". The late Valerius Geist (1998), in the only error in his whole illustrious career, re-analyzed Banfield's data with additional specimens found in an unpublished report he cites as "Skal, 1982", but
10212-407: The alimentary canal. The deer require a large amount of minerals such as calcium and phosphate in order to support antler growth, and this further necessitates a nutrient-rich diet. There are some reports of deer engaging in carnivorous activity, such as eating dead alewives along lakeshores or depredating the nests of northern bobwhites . Nearly all cervids are so-called uniparental species:
10350-618: The antlers as well as the canines are small. The tragulids have long canines to this day. With the onset of the Pliocene , the global climate became cooler. A fall in the sea-level led to massive glaciation; consequently, grasslands abounded in nutritious forage. Thus a new spurt in deer populations ensued. The oldest member of Cervini, † Cervocerus novorossiae , appeared around the transition from Miocene to Pliocene (4.2–6 Mya) in Eurasia; cervine fossils from early Pliocene to as late as
10488-875: The antlers create grooves that allow another male's antlers to lock into place. This allows the males to wrestle without risking injury to the face. Antlers are correlated to an individual's position in the social hierarchy and its behaviour. For instance, the heavier the antlers, the higher the individual's status in the social hierarchy, and the greater the delay in shedding the antlers; males with larger antlers tend to be more aggressive and dominant over others. Antlers can be an honest signal of genetic quality; males with larger antlers relative to body size tend to have increased resistance to pathogens and higher reproductive capacity. In elk in Yellowstone National Park , antlers also provide protection against predation by wolves . Homology of tines, that is,
10626-503: The basis of diploid number of chromosomes in the late 20th century has been flawed by several inconsistencies. In 1987, the zoologists Colin Groves and Peter Grubb identified three subfamilies: Cervinae, Hydropotinae and Odocoileinae; they noted that the hydropotines lack antlers, and the other two subfamilies differ in their skeletal morphology. They reverted from this classification in 2000. Molecular phylogenetic analyses since
10764-692: The branching structure of antlers among species, have been discussed before the 1900s. Recently, a new method to describe the branching structure of antlers and determining homology of tines was developed. Most deer bear 32 teeth; the corresponding dental formula is: 0.0.3.3 3.1.3.3 . The elk and the reindeer may be exceptions, as they may retain their upper canines and thus have 34 teeth (dental formula: 0.1.3.3 3.1.3.3 ). The Chinese water deer, tufted deer, and muntjac have enlarged upper canine teeth forming sharp tusks, while other species often lack upper canines altogether. The cheek teeth of deer have crescent ridges of enamel, which enable them to grind
10902-431: The carrion left by lynx or wolverines, or steal their kill, instead of hunting for itself. Wolves are also powerful enough to tackle adult reindeer, but because of the strict control of wolves in Norway, a pack would almost certainly be spotted and killed before it could do so. The lynx is the biggest natural threat to mountain reindeer because its small size makes it a perfect ambush predator. Lynx are too small to tackle
11040-405: The chital, the fallow deer and the sika deer feature white spots on a brown coat. Coat of reindeer shows notable geographical variation. Deer undergo two moults in a year; for instance, in red deer the red, thin-haired summer coat is gradually replaced by the dense, greyish brown winter coat in autumn, which in turn gives way to the summer coat in the following spring. Moulting is affected by
11178-420: The cold winters as well as reindeer can. In the south, reindeer meat is eaten often as a traditional Sunday meal or during seasonal events. Because the mountain reindeer is so large, it has very few natural predators aside from human hunters. However, lynx and wolverines sometimes prey on young, old or sick reindeer. The brown bear has the strength to tackle an adult female, but it would rather scavenge from
11316-472: The earliest members of the superfamily Cervoidea appeared in Eurasia in the Miocene. Dicrocerus , Euprox and Heteroprox were probably the first antlered cervids. Dicrocerus featured single-forked antlers that were shed regularly. Stephanocemas had more developed and diffuse ("crowned") antlers. Procervulus ( Palaeomerycidae ) also had antlers that were not shed. Contemporary forms such as
11454-648: The early Eocene , and gradually developed into the first antlered cervoids (the superfamily of cervids and related extinct families) in the Miocene . Eventually, with the development of antlers, the tusks as well as the upper incisors disappeared. Thus, evolution of deer took nearly 30 million years. Biologist Valerius Geist suggests evolution to have occurred in stages. There are not many prominent fossils to trace this evolution, but only fragments of skeletons and antlers that might be easily confused with false antlers of non-cervid species. The ruminants , ancestors of
11592-690: The early Pleistocene, probably as a result of abundant resources to drive evolution. The early Pleistocene cervid † Eucladoceros was comparable in size to the modern elk. † Megaloceros (Pliocene–Pleistocene) featured the Irish elk ( M. giganteus ), one of the largest known cervids . The Irish elk reached 2 metres ( 6 + 1 ⁄ 2 ft) at the shoulder and had heavy antlers that spanned 3.6 metres (11 ft 10 in) from tip to tip. These large animals were traditionally thought to have faced extinction due to conflict between sexual selection for large antlers and body and natural selection for
11730-413: The early taxonomists. Similarly, working on museum collections where skins were often faded and in poor states of preservation, early taxonomists could not readily perceive differences in coat patterns that are consistent within a subspecies, but variable among them. Geist calls these "nuptial" characteristics: sexually selected characters that are highly conserved and diagnostic among subspecies. Towards
11868-664: The ecological niches of the ibex and wild goat , with the fawns behaving more like goat kids. The highest concentration of large deer species in temperate North America lies in the Canadian Rocky Mountain and Columbia Mountain regions between Alberta and British Columbia where all five North American deer species ( white-tailed deer , mule deer , caribou , elk , and moose ) can be found. This region has several clusters of national parks including Mount Revelstoke National Park , Glacier National Park (Canada) , Yoho National Park , and Kootenay National Park on
12006-767: The emergence of cervids from the Oligocene to the early Pliocene . The latter half of the Oligocene (28–34 Mya) saw the appearance of the European Eumeryx and the North American Leptomeryx . The latter resembled modern-day bovids and cervids in dental morphology (for instance, it had brachyodont molars), while the former was more advanced . Other deer-like forms included the North American Blastomeryx and
12144-652: The end of the 19th century, national museums began sending out biological exploration expeditions and collections accumulated. Taxonomists, usually working for the museums, began naming subspecies more rigorously, based on statistical differences in detailed cranial, dental and skeletal measurements than antlers and pelage, supplemented by better knowledge of differences in ecology and behavior. From 1898 to 1937, mammalogists named 12 new species (other than barren-ground and woodland, which had been named earlier) of caribou in Canada and Alaska, and three new species and nine new subspecies in Eurasia, each properly described according to
12282-410: The end of their first winter. In the first twenty minutes of a fawn's life, the fawn begins to take its first steps. Its mother licks it clean until it is almost free of scent, so predators will not find it. Its mother leaves often to graze, and the fawn does not like to be left behind. Sometimes its mother must gently push it down with her foot. The fawn stays hidden in the grass for one week until it
12420-750: The endangered barasingha and very common chital are gregarious and live in large herds. Indian sambar can be gregarious but are usually solitary or live in smaller herds. Hog deer are solitary and have lower densities than Indian muntjac. Deer can be seen in several national parks in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka of which Kanha National Park , Dudhwa National Park , and Chitwan National Park are most famous. Sri Lanka's Wilpattu National Park and Yala National Park have large herds of Indian sambar and chital. The Indian sambar are more gregarious in Sri Lanka than other parts of their range and tend to form larger herds than elsewhere. The Chao Praya River Valley of Thailand
12558-603: The evolution" of Rangifer species and other Arctic and sub-Arctic species. Isolation of tundra-adapted species Rangifer in Last Glacial Maximum refugia during the last glacial – the Wisconsin glaciation in North America and the Weichselian glaciation in Eurasia – shaped "intraspecific genetic variability " particularly between the North American and Eurasian parts of the Arctic . Reindeer / caribou ( Rangifer ) are in
12696-490: The evolving rules of zoological nomenclature, with type localities designated and type specimens deposited in museums (see table in Species and subspecies below). In the mid-20th century, as definitions of "species" evolved, mammalogists in Europe and North America made all Rangifer species conspecific with R. tarandus , and synonymized most of the subspecies. Alexander William Francis Banfield 's often-cited A Revision of
12834-1000: The extinct tarpan (forest horse), extinct aurochs (forest ox), and the endangered wisent (European bison). Good places to see deer in Europe include the Scottish Highlands , the Austrian Alps , the wetlands between Austria , Hungary , and the Czech Republic , and some National Parks, including Doñana National Park in Spain , the Veluwe in the Netherlands , the Ardennes in Belgium , and Białowieża National Park in Poland . Spain , Eastern Europe , and
12972-464: The extinct caribou Torontoceros [Rangifer] hypogaeus , had features (robust and short pedicles, smooth antler surface, and high position of second tine) that relate it to forest caribou. Humans started hunting reindeer in both the Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods, and humans are today the main predator in many areas. Norway and Greenland have unbroken traditions of hunting wild reindeer from
13110-417: The features of the second and fifth metacarpal bones of their forelimbs: Plesiometacarpalia (most Old World deer) and Telemetacarpalia (most New World deer). He treated the musk deer as a cervid, placing it under Telemetacarpalia. While the telemetacarpal deer showed only those elements located far from the joint, the plesiometacarpal deer retained the elements closer to the joint as well. Differentiation on
13248-538: The females. Their bez tines are set low, just above the brow tine, which is vertically flattened to protect the eyes while the buck "threshes" low brush, a courtship display. The low bez tines help the wide flat brow tines dig craters in the hard-packed tundra snow for forage, for which reason brow tines are often called "shovels" in North America and "ice tines" in Europe. The differences in antler architecture reflect fundamental differences in ecology and behavior, and in turn deep divisions in ancestry that were not apparent to
13386-531: The foothills and river valley bottoms of the Canadian Rockies owing to conversion of land to cropland and the clearing of coniferous forests allowing more deciduous vegetation to grow up the mountain slopes. They also live in the aspen parklands north of Calgary and Edmonton, where they share habitat with the moose. The adjacent Great Plains grassland habitats are left to herds of elk, American bison , and pronghorn . The Eurasian Continent (including
13524-624: The former R. t. groenlandicus (now R. t. arcticus ). R. t. granti was lost in the oblivion of invalid taxonomy until Alaskan researchers sampled some small, pale caribou from the western end of the Alaska Peninsula, their range enclosing the type locality designated by Allen (1902) and found them to be genetically distinct from all other caribou in Alaska. Thus, granti was rediscovered, its range restricted to that originally described. Deer A deer ( pl. : deer) or true deer
13662-762: The four western Canadian montane ecotypes are not woodland caribou: they share a common ancestor with modern barren-ground caribou / tundra reindeer, but distantly, having diverged > 60,000 years ago — before the modern ecotypes had evolved their cold- and darkness-adapted physiologies and mass-migration and aggregation behaviors (see Evolution above). Before Banfield (1961), taxonomists using cranial, dental and skeletal measurements had unequivocally allied these western montane ecotypes with barren-ground caribou, naming them (as in Osgood 1909 Murie, 1935 and Anderson 1946, among others) R. t. stonei , R. t. montanus , R. t. fortidens and R. t. osborni , respectively, and this phylogeny
13800-616: The fringes of the Rocky Mountain and Laurentide ice sheets as far south as northern Alabama ; and in Sangamonian deposits (~100,000 years BP) from western Canada. A R. t. pearyi -sized caribou occupied Greenland before and after the LGM and persisted in a relict enclave in northeastern Greenland until it went extinct about 1900 (see discussion of R. t. eogroenlandicus below). Archaeological excavations showed that larger barren-ground-sized caribou appeared in western Greenland about 4,000 years ago. The late Valerius Geist (1998) dates
13938-533: The genus Rangifer as R. grœnlandicus . It went back and forth as a full species or subspecies of the barren-ground caribou ( R. arcticus ) or a subspecies of the tundra reindeer ( R. tarandus ), but always as the Greenland reindeer / caribou. Taxonomists consistently documented morphological differences between Greenland and other caribou / reindeer in cranial measurements, dentition, antler architecture, etc. Then Banfield (1961) in his famously flawed revision, gave
14076-484: The larger caribou that appeared in Greenland 4,000 years ago originated from Baffin Island (itself unique; see Taxonomy above), a reconstruction of LGM glacial retreat and caribou advance (Yannic et al. 2013) shows colonization by NAL lineage caribou more likely. Their PCA and tree diagrams show Greenland caribou clustering outside of the Beringian-Eurasian lineage. The scientific name R. t. granti has
14214-510: The late Miocene–Pliocene; this appears highly probable as the camelids migrated into Asia from North America around the same time. Deer invaded South America in the late Pliocene (2.5–3 Mya) as part of the Great American Interchange , thanks to the recently formed Isthmus of Panama , and emerged successful due to the small number of competing ruminants in the continent. Large deer with impressive antlers evolved during
14352-450: The latter half of the 2000s all show that hydropotes is a sister taxon of Capreolus , and “Hydropotinae” became outdated subfamily. Until 2003, it was understood that the family Moschidae (musk deer) was sister to Cervidae. Then a phylogenetic study by Alexandre Hassanin (of National Museum of Natural History, France ) and colleagues, based on mitochondrial and nuclear analyses, revealed that Moschidae and Bovidae form
14490-399: The male of any species is a hart , especially if over five years old, and the female is a hind , especially if three or more years old. The young of small species is a fawn and of large species a calf ; a very small young may be a kid . A castrated male is a havier . A group of any species is a herd . The adjective of relation is cervine ; like the family name Cervidae , this
14628-434: The more general sense: for example, Dutch / Frisian dier , German Tier , and Norwegian dyr mean ' animal ' . For many types of deer in modern English usage, the male is a buck and the female a doe , but the terms vary with dialect, and according to the size of the species. The male red deer is a stag , while for other large species the male is a bull , the female a cow , as in cattle. In older usage,
14766-413: The most restricted range living at higher altitudes in the subalpine meadows and alpine tundra areas of some of the mountain ranges. Elk and mule deer both migrate between the alpine meadows and lower coniferous forests and tend to be most common in this region. Elk also inhabit river valley bottomlands, which they share with White-tailed deer. The White-tailed deer have recently expanded their range within
14904-641: The mountains of Norway, notably in Hardangervidda . In Sweden there are approximately 250,000 reindeer in herds managed by Sámi villages. Russia manages 19 herds of Siberian tundra reindeer ( R. t. sibiricus ) that total about 940,000. The Taimyr herd of Siberian tundra reindeer is the largest wild reindeer herd in the world, varying between 400,000 and 1,000,000; it is a metapopulation consisting of several subpopulations — some of which are phenotypically different — with different migration routes and calving areas. The Kamchatkan reindeer ( R. t. phylarchus ),
15042-546: The name groenlandicus to all the barren-ground caribou in North America, Greenland included, because groenlandicus pre-dates Richardson's R. arctus . However, because genetic data shows the Greenland caribou to be the most distantly related of any caribou to all the others (genetic distance, FST = 44%, whereas most cervid (deer family) species have a genetic distance of 2% to 5%)--as well as behavioral and morphological differences—a recent revision returned it to species status as R. groenlandicus . Although it has been assumed that
15180-624: The northern states of the contiguous United States from Maine to Washington . Boreal woodland caribou have disappeared from most of their original southern range and were designated as Threatened in 2002 by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). Environment and Climate Change Canada reported in 2011 that there were approximately 34,000 boreal woodland caribou in 51 ranges remaining in Canada (Environment Canada, 2011b), although those numbers included montane populations classified by Harding (2022) into subspecies of
15318-596: The possible exception of the Indian muntjac . There are also several species of deer that are highly specialized and live almost exclusively in mountains, grasslands, swamps, and "wet" savannas, or riparian corridors surrounded by deserts . Some deer have a circumpolar distribution in both North America and Eurasia . Examples include the caribou that live in Arctic tundra and taiga (boreal forests) and moose that inhabit taiga and adjacent areas. Huemul deer ( taruca and Chilean huemul ) of South America 's Andes fill
15456-414: The previously named subspecies distributions, without naming them as such, plus some ecotypes. Ecotypes are not phylogenetically based and cannot substitute for taxonomy. Meanwhile, genetic data continued to accumulate, revealing sufficiently deep divisions to easily separate Rangifer back into six previously named species and to resurrect several previously named subspecies. Molecular data showed that
15594-536: The recent revision (see Reindeer#Taxonomy below). Reindeer / caribou ( Rangifer ) vary in size from the smallest, the Svalbard reindeer ( R. ( t. ) platyrhynchus ), to the largest, Osborn's caribou ( R. t. osborni ). They also vary in coat color and antler architecture. The North American range of caribou extends from Alaska through the Yukon , the Northwest Territories and Nunavut throughout
15732-428: The recent revision): In North America, R. t. caboti , R. t. caribou , R. t. dawsoni , R. t. groenlandicus , R. t. osborni , R. t. pearyi , and R. t. terranovae ; and in Eurasia, R. t. tarandus , R. t. buskensis (called R. t. valentinae in Europe; see below), R. t. phylarchus , R. t. pearsoni , R. t. sibiricus and R. t. platyrhynchus . These subspecies were retained in the 2011 replacement work Handbook of
15870-496: The reindeer found in southern Norway, such as on the Hardangervidda plateau, are related to reindeer from southern Europe. They may have descended from the Finnish forest reindeer ( R. fennicus fennicus ) that historically occupied parts of Eastern Europe . Currently, wild mountain reindeer can only be found in western Scandinavia, with the biggest populations residing in central and southern Norway. The total population in Norway
16008-402: The right spot and never really find it." Deer appear to be immune to this parasite; it passes through the digestive system and is excreted in the feces. The parasite is not screened by the moose intestine, and passes into the brain where damage is done that is externally apparent, both in behaviour and in gait. Deer, elk and moose in North America may suffer from chronic wasting disease , which
16146-417: The second most diverse family of artiodactyla after bovids. Though of a similar build, deer are strongly distinguished from antelopes by their antlers , which are temporary and regularly regrown unlike the permanent horns of bovids. Characteristics typical of deer include long, powerful legs, a diminutive tail and long ears. Deer exhibit a broad variation in physical proportions. The largest extant deer
16284-501: The skull and are often used for combat between males. The musk deer ( Moschidae ) of Asia and chevrotains ( Tragulidae ) of tropical African and Asian forests are separate families that are also in the ruminant clade Ruminantia ; they are not especially closely related to Cervidae. Deer appear in art from Paleolithic cave paintings onwards, and they have played a role in mythology , religion, and literature throughout history, as well as in heraldry , such as red deer that appear in
16422-433: The smallest, the Svalbard reindeer ( R. ( t. ) platyrhynchus ), to the largest, Osborn's caribou ( R. t. osborni ). Although reindeer are quite numerous, some species and subspecies are in decline and considered vulnerable . They are unique among deer (Cervidae) in that females may have antlers , although the prevalence of antlered females varies by subspecies. Reindeer are the only successfully semi-domesticated deer on
16560-524: The sole maintenance host in the Michigan outbreak of bovine tuberculosis which remains a significant barrier to the US nationwide eradication of the disease in livestock. Moose and deer can carry rabies . Docile moose may suffer from brain worm , a helminth which drills holes through the brain in its search for a suitable place to lay its eggs. A government biologist states that "They move around looking for
16698-497: The subfamily Odocoileinae , along with roe deer ( Capreolus ), Eurasian elk / moose ( Alces ), and water deer ( Hydropotes ). These antlered cervids split from the horned ruminants Bos (cattle and yaks), Ovis (sheep) and Capra (goats) about 36 million years ago. The Eurasian clade of Odocoileinae (Capreolini, Hydropotini and Alcini) split from the New World tribes of Capreolinae ( Odocoileini and Rangiferini) in
16836-427: The subspecies level; that Finnish forest reindeer ( R. t. fennicus ) clustered well apart from both wild and domestic tundra reindeer and that boreal woodland caribou ( R. t. caribou ) were separable from all others. Meanwhile, archaeological evidence was accumulating that Eurasian forest reindeer descended from an extinct forest-adapted reindeer and not from tundra reindeer (see Evolution above); since they do not share
16974-623: The terms reindeer and caribou for essentially the same animal can cause confusion, but the ICUN clearly delineates the issue: "Reindeer is the European name for the species of Rangifer, while in North America, Rangifer species are known as Caribou." The word reindeer is an anglicized version of the Old Norse words hreinn ("reindeer") and dýr ("animal") and has nothing to do with reins. The word caribou comes through French, from
17112-574: The third year. This process of losing a set of antlers to develop a larger and more branched set continues for the rest of the life. The antlers emerge as soft tissues (known as velvet antlers ) and progressively harden into bony structures (known as hard antlers), following mineralisation and blockage of blood vessels in the tissue, from the tip to the base. Antlers might be one of the most exaggerated male secondary sexual characteristics , and are intended primarily for reproductive success through sexual selection and for combat. The tines (forks) on
17250-541: The time of parturition. The fallow deer and the various subspecies of the reindeer have the largest as well as the heaviest antlers, both in absolute terms as well as in proportion to body mass (an average of eight grams per kilogram of body mass); the tufted deer, on the other hand, has the smallest antlers of all deer, while the pudú has the lightest antlers with respect to body mass (0.6 g per kilogram of body mass). The structure of antlers show considerable variation; while fallow deer and elk antlers are palmate (with
17388-499: The tundra and into the taiga. Eurasian mountain reindeer ( R. t. tarandus ) are close to North American caribou genetically and visually, but with sufficient differences to warrant division into two species. The unique, insular Svalbard reindeer inhabits the Svalbard Archipelago . The Finnish forest reindeer ( R. t. fennicus ) is spottily distributed in the coniferous forest zones from Finland to east of Lake Baikal :
17526-944: The uniformly dark, small-maned type with the frontally emphasized, flat-beamed antlers", is "scattered thinly along the southern rim of North American caribou distribution". He affirms that the "true woodland caribou is very rare, in very great difficulties and requires the most urgent of attention." In 2011, noting that the former classifications of Rangifer tarandus , either with prevailing taxonomy on subspecies, designations based on ecotypes , or natural population groupings, failed to capture "the variability of caribou across their range in Canada" needed for effective subspecies conservation and management, COSEWIC developed Designatable Unit (DU) attribution, an adaptation of "evolutionary significant units". The 12 designatable units for caribou in Canada (that is, excluding Alaska and Greenland) based on ecology, behavior and, importantly, genetics (but excluding morphology and archaeology) essentially followed
17664-456: The various Asian rhinoceros species, various antelope species (such as nilgai , four-horned antelope , blackbuck , and Indian gazelle in India), and wild oxen (such as wild Asian water buffalo , gaur , banteng , and kouprey ). One way that different herbivores can survive together in a given area is for each species to have different food preferences, although there may be some overlap. As
17802-494: The various forms of the Woodland Caribou are so great in almost every respect that no detailed comparison is necessary. ...According to Mr. Stone, Rangifer granti inhabits the " barren land of Alaska Peninsula, ranging well up into the mountains in summer, but descending to the lower levels in winter, generally feeding on the low flat lands near the coast and in the foothills...As regards cranial characters no comparison
17940-512: The world. Clearing open areas within forests to some extent may actually benefit deer populations by exposing the understory and allowing the types of grasses, weeds, and herbs to grow that deer like to eat. Access to adjacent croplands may also benefit deer. Adequate forest or brush cover must still be provided for populations to grow and thrive. Deer are widely distributed, with indigenous representatives in all continents except Antarctica and Australia , though Africa has only one native deer,
18078-491: The young, known in most species as fawns, are only cared for by the mother, most often called a doe. A doe generally has one or two fawns at a time (triplets, while not unknown, are uncommon). Mating season typically begins in later August and lasts until December. Some species mate until early March. The gestation period is anywhere up to ten months for the European roe deer. Most fawns are born with their fur covered with white spots, though in many species they lose these spots by
18216-463: Was "not able to find diagnostic features that could segregate this form from the western barren ground type." But Skal 1982 had included specimens from the eastern end of the Alaska Peninsula and the Kenai Peninsula , the range of the larger Stone's caribou. Later, geneticists comparing barren-ground caribou of Alaska with those of mainland Canada found little difference and they all became
18354-917: Was confirmed by genetic analysis. DNA also revealed three unnamed clades that, based on genetic distance, genetic divergence and shared vs. private haplotypes and alleles , together with ecological and behavioral differences, may justify separation at the subspecies level: the Atlantic- Gaspésie caribou (COSEWIC DU11), an eastern montane ecotype of the boreal woodland caribou, and the Baffin Island caribou. Neither one of these clades has yet been formally described or named. Jenkins et al. (2012) said that "[Baffin Island] caribou are unique compared to other Barrenground herds, as they do not overwinter in forested habitat, nor do all caribou undertake long seasonal migrations to calving areas." It also shares
18492-446: Was estimated to be just 2,700. In the 1930s, quotas were introduced to limit the hunting of reindeer. These regulations, along with migrating reindeer, helped increase the population. By the mid-1990s, the wild reindeer population had rebounded to more than 30,000. Today, mountain reindeer are commonly hunted for food or as trophies. The domestic reindeer currently has a population in Norway of about 1.2 million. It has historically played
18630-513: Was identified at a Colorado laboratory in the 1960s and is believed to be a prion disease. Out of an abundance of caution hunters are advised to avoid contact with specified risk material (SRM) such as the brain, spinal column or lymph nodes. Deboning the meat when butchering and sanitizing the knives and other tools used to butcher are amongst other government recommendations. Deer are believed to have evolved from antlerless, tusked ancestors that resembled modern duikers and diminutive deer in
18768-460: Was later replaced by R. constantini , which was adapted for grasslands, in a second immigration 19,000–20,000 years ago when the LGM turned its forest habitats into tundra, while fennicus survived in isolation in southwestern Europe. R. constantini was then replaced by modern tundra / barren-ground caribou adapted to extreme cold, probably in Beringia, before dispersing west ( R. t. tarandus in
18906-474: Was once primarily tropical seasonal moist deciduous forest and wet savanna that hosted populations of hog deer, the now-extinct Schomburgk's deer , Eld's deer , Indian sambar, and Indian muntjac. Both the hog deer and Eld's deer are rare, whereas Indian sambar and Indian muntjac thrive in protected national parks, such as Khao Yai . Many of these South Asian and Southeast Asian deer species also share their habitat with other herbivores , such as Asian elephants ,
19044-516: Was selected as the senior synonym to R. t. valentinae Flerov, 1933, in Mammal Species of the World but Russian authors do not recognize Millais and Millais' articles in a hunting travelogue, The Gun at Home and Abroad , seem short of a taxonomic authority. The scientific name groenlandicus is fraught with problems. Edwards (1743) illustrated and claimed to have seen a male specimen ("head of perfect horns...") from Greenland and said that
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