Reindeer

True Wild Life | Reindeer | The reindeer (also known as the caribou) is found in large herds in the very north of the world. Reindeer inhabit both the Arctic Tundra and the North Pole regions which include parts of North America, Europe and Asia. The reindeers hooves adapt to the season so in the summer when the tundra is soft and wet, the reindeers footpads become sponge-like in order to get a bigger surface area on the damp group. In the winter, the reindeers footpads shrink and tighten, exposing the rim of the hoof which cuts into the ice and crusted snow to stop the reindeer from slipping.

The changes to the reindeer hooves during the winter enables the reindeer to dig down through the snow to the reindeers favourite food, a lichen known as reindeer moss. The reindeers coat has two layers of fur, a thick woolly undercoat and a longer-haired overcoat which consists of hollow, air-filled hairs which helps to keep the reindeer warm.

The reindeer travels the furthest of any land mammal with these migrations often containing thousands of reindeer. The caribou of North America can run at speeds up to 50 mph and can travel as many as 3,000 miles a year.The most extensive migrations occur in spring and fall. The largest reindeer migrations take place in the spring and autumn when the reindeer are hungry and in search of food.

The reindeer is often an attempted target for the large predators that exist in the Arctic Circle but the reindeer is very fast and moves in enormous groups so the reindeer is not easy to catch. Arctic wolves, polar bears, brown bears, humans and the occasional shark are amongst those animals that hunt the reindeer.

Deer

True Wild Life | Deer | The deer is found in the forests of Europe, Asia and North America, where most deer grow to an average of about 1 meter tall. Deer-like creatures are found in Africa, however they are all antelope and not deer. Deer stay in herds of approximately 25 deers per herd, mainly female deer and a dominant male deer known as a stag. The male deer are protective deer and will often fight other stags to protect their herd of female deer and to protect their pride.

The male deer horns shed and regrow every year, a little like the skin on a snake. The only species of deer with exception to this annual horn shedding is the Chinese water deer. There are around 40 different species of deer found in the woodlands of the Northern Hemisphere. There are roughly six different species of deer found in the UK alone, however, only the red deer and the roe deer are truly native to the Isles.

Deer are known as selective feeders and spend most of their time browsing for food with the deer mainly eating leaves. Deer are very selective in what they eat and deer therefore spend a great deal of time picking out the shoots, leaves, grasses and fruits that are easy for the deer to digest. Humans have hunted deer for thousands of years and hunt the deer for the deer meat, milk and skins. Today, deer are commercially farmed for their meat, rather than being hunted, and in New Zealand alone there are over 3,000 deer farms across the two islands.

Due to hunting from humans and other large predators, and the continued loss of the deer habitat, the wild deer are becoming very vulnerable and are being pushed into smaller areas of forest that is uninhabited by larger mammals. Deer are prey to many wild animals around the world from humans, to wolves, tigers, bears and occasionally foxes, and many other mammals will attempt to scavenge from a deer that has been killed by something else, seeing as many deer species can be quite big and are fairly fast.