10 BULLETIN" 1423, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
ent kinds of range forage plants grazed varies 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 
growths. In spring they seek the earliest vegetation, and feed on 
green growth throughout the summer. 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 moisture in fall and conse- 
quently are fresher and probably more palatable. Though the 
lichens represent principally the winter forage of reindeer, they are 
taken also in summer to the extent of about 15 per cent of their 
food. 
TESTS WITH CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 
Keindeer 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 commonly 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 
from 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 
chopped 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 fully from the lichen diet. On a lichen 
ration the check animal ate 10 to 15 pounds of lichens (air-dry 
weight) and 2 pounds of native hay a day; and on hay and grain 
the individual reindeer 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 23-day journey from Kokrines to Nunivak Island, the 
animals with no lichens supplied took readily to a hay-and-grain diet 
in three or four days. Each one was fed about 7 pounds 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 60 and 90 day station tests on hay and grain the animals made 
gains of two or three 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, rein- 
deer will generally hold their own on a lichen feed and make slight 
gains where sheltered and where plenty of feed is to be easily ob- 
tained, but they lose in condition if unsheltered and forced to rustle 
extensively for their food. 
