Tis the season of the reindeer. After all, it’s hard to not notice them at this time of year. They make appearances in holiday movies, or on holiday greeting cards, and sometimes they are seen in ...

LIFE CYCLE: Caribou generally live between eight and 15 years. FEEDING: Although caribou eat a wide variety of foods, winter foraging is limited almost exclusively to ground and arboreal lichens.

These female caribou — part of North America's largest ... trudging through the snow using their scoop-shaped hooves to dig for lichen clinging to rocks and shrubs buried beneath the snow.

For caribou, growth of woody plants like alders and willows means problems. Caribou depend on tundra plants like lichen and mosses; the shrubs and trees taking over the terrain are reducing the ...