Mountain Caribou
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Caribou are unique in the deer family in that both females and males grow antlers. And mountain caribou are unique in the caribou family. Other caribou range across open plains, but Mountain caribou go from low elevations to much higher elevations every winter. While most hoofed mammals – ungulates – seek lower ground during winter, mountain caribou head up the mountains.
Mountain caribou are larger than deer and smaller than elk, with males weighing approximately 175 kg (close to 400 pounds.) Their hollow fur insulates them through the long mountain winters.
All of the world’s mountain caribou live in the mountains of southeast British Columbia and occasionally into parts of Washington, Idaho and Montana. The globally unique mountain caribou is a variety of woodland caribou that has adapted to the special conditions of B.C.’s wet, mountainous forests. There aren’t many of these big beasts left.
Well, that’s a bit of an understatement: they are endangered but somehow hanging on.
When snow falls in early winter, mountain caribou are found in low elevation old-growth cedar and hemlock forests where trees may exceed 1,000 years in age. Here, they feed on ground plants. But once the mid-winter snow buries those foods, mountain caribou move higher into subalpine fir and spruce forests where their dinner-plate-sized feet act like snowshoes, allowing them to use the deep winter snow as a platform to reach lichens draped from old-growth trees. These tree lichens are typically the only food source for mountain caribou during most of the winter, and are found in abundance in old-growth forests.
Mountain caribou make up the southernmost occurrence of caribou in the world. Other kinds of caribou include the Barrenland and Peary caribou of Canada’s far north, and several species of reindeer in Europe and Asia.
Big, strange and endangered
Caribou are unique in the deer family in that both females and males grow antlers. And mountain caribou are unique in the caribou family. Other caribou range across open plains, but Mountain caribou go from low elevations to much higher elevations every winter. While most hoofed mammals – ungulates – seek lower ground during winter, mountain caribou head up the mountains.
Mountain caribou are larger than deer and smaller than elk, with males weighing approximately 175 kg (close to 400 pounds.) Their hollow fur insulates them through the long mountain winters.
All of the world’s mountain caribou live in the mountains of southeast British Columbia and occasionally into parts of Washington, Idaho and Montana. The globally unique mountain caribou is a variety of woodland caribou that has adapted to the special conditions of B.C.’s wet, mountainous forests. There aren’t many of these big beasts left.
Well, that’s a bit of an understatement: they are endangered but somehow hanging on.
When snow falls in early winter, mountain caribou are found in low elevation old-growth cedar and hemlock forests where trees may exceed 1,000 years in age. Here, they feed on ground plants. But once the mid-winter snow buries those foods, mountain caribou move higher into subalpine fir and spruce forests where their dinner-plate-sized feet act like snowshoes, allowing them to use the deep winter snow as a platform to reach lichens draped from old-growth trees. These tree lichens are typically the only food source for mountain caribou during most of the winter, and are found in abundance in old-growth forests.
Mountain caribou make up the southernmost occurrence of caribou in the world. Other kinds of caribou include the Barrenland and Peary caribou of Canada’s far north, and several species of reindeer in Europe and Asia.
Big, strange and endangered
Caribou are unique in the deer family in that both females and males grow antlers. And mountain caribou are unique in the caribou family. Other caribou range across open plains, but Mountain caribou go from low elevations to much higher elevations every winter. While most hoofed mammals – ungulates – seek lower ground during winter, mountain caribou head up the mountains.
Mountain caribou are larger than deer and smaller than elk, with males weighing approximately 175 kg (close to 400 pounds.) Their hollow fur insulates them through the long mountain winters.
All of the world’s mountain caribou live in the mountains of southeast British Columbia and occasionally into parts of Washington, Idaho and Montana. The globally unique mountain caribou is a variety of woodland caribou that has adapted to the special conditions of B.C.’s wet, mountainous forests. There aren’t many of these big beasts left.
Well, that’s a bit of an understatement: they are endangered but somehow hanging on.
When snow falls in early winter, mountain caribou are found in low elevation old-growth cedar and hemlock forests where trees may exceed 1,000 years in age. Here, they feed on ground plants. But once the mid-winter snow buries those foods, mountain caribou move higher into subalpine fir and spruce forests where their dinner-plate-sized feet act like snowshoes, allowing them to use the deep winter snow as a platform to reach lichens draped from old-growth trees. These tree lichens are typically the only food source for mountain caribou during most of the winter, and are found in abundance in old-growth forests.
Mountain caribou make up the southernmost occurrence of caribou in the world. Other kinds of caribou include the Barrenland and Peary caribou of Canada’s far north, and several species of reindeer in Europe and Asia.
