This snapshot shows a few of the 35,000 caribou believed to be running in the Nelchina Caribou herd as of 2009. The caribou will bunch-up into herds of two or three thousand head, and sometimes 10’s of thousands will be found in one concentrated area. I am no biologist, but I have been around caribou enough to express an opinion about their intelligence….I don’t think they have any. Caribou are totally unpredictable. They are often found sprinting madly across the tundra as if something were chasing them, only to dig in their heels, stop on a dime, graze for a few seconds, and then dash off in the direction they just came from only to do it again. Some say its because of the mosquitos, but they pull the same maneuvers when there is not a bug in the neighborhood. Their behavior is almost totally erratic but there migratory patterns are relatively consistent.
A caribou and a reindeer are the same animal. In Alaska it is generally understood that reindeer are domestic while caribou are wild. Both the Male and Female caribou grow antlers. The males naturally shed their antlers between December and April, usually depending on size. The antlers tend to fall off the bigger bulls first. The females will usually keep their antlers into the summer season. A big male will weigh approximately 450 pounds while a big female only weighs about half that much. Caribou are ruminants so they have a four chamber stomach very much like a cow. They feed mainly on lichens in the winter, but will also eat leaves and grasses when available.
It has always amazed me how camouflaged these critters are considering the lack of vegetation to hide behind. It’s not uncommon to look down and see a single caribou, and then realize that the single caribou is in a herd of two hundred that you failed to notice. We see caribou generally every day in July and it’s really fun to show clients the larger herds. They like the snow because it helps keep them cool, the photo above shows this well.