About caribou

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Woodland caribou populations

Woodland caribou, a forest-dwelling type of caribou, were once found nearly everywhere there were forests in Canada, from Prince Edward Island on the Atlantic coast to the Pacific islands of Haida Gwaii.  But today, their population is almost entirely confined to the Boreal Forest. Protecting the Woodland caribou's remaining carbon-rich habitat is also crucial to the fight against climate change.

There are several populations of Woodland caribou found across Canada's Boreal...

  • Boreal Woodland caribou are found across Canada's Boreal Forest.  This is the largest population of Woodland caribou in the world, but it's also threatened -- half of their habitat has disappeared in the last 50 years due to development.
  • The Northern Mountain population is found in the Boreal forest of northern BC, Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
  • Good news  -- The island of Newfoundland is home to the one regional population of woodland caribou that is not at risk... for now.

...and in other parts of Canada:

  • The extinct Dawson's population once lived on the islands of Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) on the northwest coast of British Columbia,  Now, there's only one -- stuffed and mounted in the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria.
  • The endangered Atlantic (Gaspesie) caribou are the last vestige of a population that once roamed New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and the New England states. It is the only population of Woodland caribou that has a completed recovery strategy under the federal Species at Risk Act
  • The threatened and endangered Southern Mountain population is found in the Rockies of British Columbia and Alberta. A sub-population, the Mountain caribou, is recognized by British Columbia as endangered.  Learn more at mountaincaribou.org.

For more info, read The Survival of Boreal Woodland Caribou in Canada (PDF)

Other caribou

  • The Woodland caribou has many fine, furry friends -- also caribou, but of a different type.
  • The more social and adventurous Barren ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) lives just north of the woodland caribou on Canada's tundra.
  • The smaller, white-coated Peary caribou (R. tarandus peary) who live even further north in Canada's high artic.
  • And of course, the woodland caribou's closest cousin, Santa's reindeer (R. tarandus polaris), who live furthest north of all -- at the North Pole!

Did you know?

  • Caribou are ungulates -- members of the deer family. They are generally larger than deer and smaller than elk or moose.
  • Woodland caribou have a long, thick winter coat with hollow hairs that protects them from both cold and wind and helps them float.
  • Caribou have large, concave hooves for moving over soft snow and muskeg. A caribou's large hooves act like flippers in the water.
  • A caribou's tendons make a clicking noise when it walks.
  • Caribou are the only large mammal that can survive on a diet of lichens, their preferred food sources in snow-blanketed Boreal forests.
  • Woodland caribou have an excellent sense of smell that helps them locate lichens beneath snow in winter.
  • Woodland caribou reproduce slowly. Females take longer than other types of deer to reach reproductive age and rarely have more than one calf.
  • Who wears the antlers here? Caribou are unique among ungulates -- both sexes carry antlers.
  • Woodland caribou are important to northern Aboriginal communities that rely on them for food and clothing and cultural survival
  • Woodland caribou are forest dwellers that live in small, scattered groups.