THE REINDEER 



(Rangifer tarandus) 



THE reindeer, the ren of the Swedes, is by far the most valuable member of 

 the deer tribe, as it furnishes the Laps and many of the tribes of northern 

 Asia not only with food, raiment, and leather, but likewise serves as a 

 beast of draught and burden to transport them and their food across the 

 inhospitable regions which form their home. Reindeer are likewise in all 

 probability the most numerous in individuals of any of the Cervidce, occurring in 

 vast herds on the high /jells of Scandinavia, while in many parts of North America, 

 where they are known as caribou, they are met with in countless thousands, if not 

 indeed in millions. 



But it is not only in these two respects that reindeer are worthy of special 

 notice, for they are the only members of the deer tribe in which antlers are carried 

 by both sexes, those of the females being, however, considerably smaller than those 

 of the males ; while they are further remarkable for the early period of life at 

 which these appendages make their first appearance. Then, again, the antlers, 

 as is well shown in the illustration, are quite unlike those of any other deer ; 

 generally having the two pairs of front tines more or less branched and 

 unsymmetrical, while the main beam sweeps backwards and then forwards in a 

 bold curve, frequently giving off a single back-tine at the middle of the arch, and 

 always carrying a number of tines on the hind edge of the upper portion. 



Reindeer have a circumpolar distribution, except that they are naturally 

 absent from Alaska ; and in the former respect therefore agree with elk, although 

 their range extends much farther north, and is proportionately curtailed in the 

 south. 



In all respects these deer are admirably adapted to a climate of intense 

 severity and a life for months at a time amid snow and ice. Their coats are of 

 great thickness and density, the hairs growing so close together as to produce 

 a structure recalling much elongated velvet-pile. In the stags the throat is 

 further protected by a fringe or ruff of long hair ; and in both sexes the main pair 

 of hoofs is very large and deeply cleft, so as to afford as big a surface as possible 

 to prevent sinking deeply in the snow, while further support is afforded by the 

 unusually large size of the small supplemental pair of hoofs. With these powerful 

 hoofs, reindeer in winter scrape away the snow to uncover the reindeer-moss 

 {Cladonia rangi/erind), which at this season forms their main or only food-supply. 

 In summer, however, they eat grass and herbage, as well as the buds and young 

 shoots of dwarf birch. 



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