Woodland Caribou (Atlantic (Gaspé) population)

Rangifer tarandus dawsoni

The reindeer of northern Europe and Asia and the caribou of northern Canada belong to a single widespread species, although Canada has two distinct sub-species - the Woodland caribou and the Peary caribou. The Queen Charlotte Islands population is extinct, while five other populations are endangered or threatened. Caribou are gregarious and travel in bands of 10-50 or in loose herds of around a thousand animals. They are nomadic and have extensive migrations. The caribou relies almost exclusively on its sense of smell to detect danger and when it is alarmed it sledom runs far before turning around to identify the threat by its scent. Lichens are the mainstay of the caribou diet, especially during the winter, as well as mushroooms, grasses and forbes. Due to the testing of atomic weapons, Caribou consume radioactive by-products like cesium-137 while feeding on lichens which store the fallout, passing on the burden to the caribou-eating Inuit and Lapp hunters.