Overview
What's a Woodland caribou?
This large, shy cousin to the better-known reindeer and migratory tundra caribou lives in Canada's Boreal forest, and doesn't migrate.
Where do they live?
Woodland caribou, a forest-dwelling type of caribou, were once found nearly everywhere there were forests in northern North America, from Prince Edward Island and Maine on the Atlantic coast, as far south as Algonquin Park in Ontario, and as far west as the Pacific islands of Haida Gwaii.
Over the past 100 years, their habitat has shrunk dramatically. Today, Woodland caribou are mostly confined to Canada's northern Boreal Forest.
Learn about caribou in your region >
Why do Woodland caribou matter?
These caribou live in Canada's Boreal forest. The Boreal stores more than 186 billion tons of carbon - 27 years' worth of global carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels!
When we protect caribou habitat, we take a big step in combatting climate change.
Why are they threatened?
As development continues to sprawl further north, Woodland caribou are disappearing from the Boreal forest. Logging, road-building and other forms of development such as mining and oil and gas development, are driving the caribou's decline.
Learn more about threats to Woodland caribou >
Caribou culture
- The caribou is featured on the back of the Canadian quarter.
- The caribou is the official provincial animal of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and appears on the coat of arms of Nunavut.
- A bronze statue of a caribou marks the spot in France where hundreds of soldiers from Newfoundland were killed and wounded in the First World War.
Did you know?
Caribou have large, concave hooves for moving over soft snow and muskeg.