10 BULLETIN 1423, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE 



ent kinds of range forage plants grazed A'aries greatly with the stage 

 of growth, and probably to some extent with the tastes of individual 

 animals. As a rule reindeer prefer a variety of green and fresh 

 gTowths. In spring they seek the earliest vegetation, and feed on 

 green growth throughout the siunmer. In fall and winter they feed 

 on lichens and grasses and on dry vegetation of various kinds. They 

 prefer, however, the lichens known as reindeer moss which have 

 made new growth and attained greater moistiire in fall and conse- 

 quently are fi-esher and i)robably more palatable. Though the 

 lichens represent iii-ineipally the winter forage of reindeer, they are 

 taken also in sunniier to the extent of about 15 per cent of their 

 food. 



TESTS WITH CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 



Reindeer are fattest in fall, following the summer grazing on 

 green feed, and during the winter months gradually lose in condi- 

 tion on the lichen feed. It has been couunonly stated or supposed 

 that reindeer fatten on the lichen forage and that it is necessary for 

 their maintenance; but feeding experiments have demonstrated that 

 this is not the case, and that reindeer can be fed and fattened on 

 cultivated growth as well as can other classes of livestock. Under 

 experimental winter feeding reindeer have been successfully weaned 

 fi-om a lichen diet and fed on hay and grain. In experiments con- 

 ducted under the direction of the writer the animals were kept under 

 shelter and handled much as are domestic cattle. The feeds used 

 were timothy, alfalfa, native hay. linseed meal, rolled oats, and 

 chopi)ed corn feed, which included cracked corn, rolled oats, and 

 rolled barley. Check animals were fed on a full ration of mixed 

 lichens and native hay. 



It took about 7 days to wean the younger stock from a lichen feed 

 and to get them to eat hay and grain readily, and about twice as long 

 to wean the adult stock fidly from the lichen diet. On a lichen 

 ration the check animal ate 10 to 15 pounds of lichens (air-dry 

 weight) and 2 j)()unds of native hay a day; and on hay and gi-ain 

 tlie individual reindeei' consumed about 4 pounds of hay (alfalfa or 

 timothy) and 4 pounds of grain a day. To make the change from 

 lichens to hay and grain, a mixture of lichens and grain or of lichens 

 and hay was first fed and the quantity of lichens gradually reduced 

 until entirely eliminated. 



In experiments in feeding 10 yearling and 2-year-old caribou bulls 

 during a 2;5-day journey from Kokrines to Nunivak Island, the 

 animals with no licliens sujiplied took I'eadily to a liay-and-grain diet 

 in tliree or four days. Each one was fed about 7 ])()un(ls of hay and 

 4.5 pounds of grain daily, but as they consume only the leaves and 

 finer parts, the actual hay eaten by each did not exceed 5 pounds, 



IMPORTANCE OF LICHEN FORAGE 



In CO and 90 day station tests on hay and grain the animals made 

 gains of tw^o or thive times that of check animals on lichens, varying 

 from half to two-thirds of a pound a day. The check animal 

 made a slight daily gain. Under range conditions, however, lein- 

 deer will gencMally hohl their own on a lichen feed and make sliglit 

 gains where slieltered and where plenty of feed is to be easily ob- 

 tained, but they lose in condition if unsheltered and forced to rustle 

 extensively foi- their food. 



