page_title: Reindeer
section_title: Distribution and habitat
hierarchical_section_title: Reindeer / Ecology / Distribution and habitat
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Sob polární (Rangifer tarandus) v údolí Kebnekaise, Laponsko, Švédsko. English: Strolling reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) in the Kebnekaise valley, Lappland, Sweden. Español: Reno (Rangifer tarandus) en Kebnekaise, Suecia. Français&#160;: Un renne, aussi appelé caribou (Rangifer tarandus) dans la vallée du Kebnekaise, dans les Alpes scandinaves (Suède) हिन्दी: केबनेकाइजे घाटी, लैपलैण्ड, स्वीडन में घूम रहा रेनडियर। Nederlands: Rendier (Rangifer tarandus) in de Kebnekaise vallei in het Zweedse deel van Lapland. Português: Uma rena, (Rangifer tarandus), no vale Kebnekaise, na Lapónia, Suécia Türkçe: Ren geyikleri dünyanın kuzey bölümünde yoğunluklu olarak yaşamaktadır. Ayrıca ilk evcilleştirilmiş hayvanlar arasında yer almaktadır. (Lappland - tr:İsveç).
context_page_description: The reindeer, also known as the caribou in North America, is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, sub-Arctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. This includes both sedentary and migratory populations. Rangifer herd size varies greatly in different geographic regions. The Taimyr herd of migrating Siberian tundra reindeer in Russia is the largest wild reindeer herd in the world, varying between 400,000 and 1,000,000. What was once the second largest herd is the migratory boreal woodland caribou George River herd in Canada, with former variations between 28,000 and 385,000. As of January 2018, there are fewer than 9,000 animals estimated to be left in the George River herd, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The New York Times reported in April 2018 of the disappearance of the only herd of southern mountain caribou in the contiguous United States with an expert calling it "functionally extinct" after the herd's size dwindled to a mere three animals.
  Rangifer varies in size and colour from the smallest, the Svalbard reindeer, to the largest, the boreal woodland caribou.
context_section_description: Originally, the reindeer was found in Scandinavia, eastern Europe, Greenland, Russia, Mongolia and northern China north of the 50th latitude. In North America, it was found in Canada, Alaska, and the northern conterminous USA from Washington to Maine. In the 19th century, it was apparently still present in southern Idaho. Even in historical times, it probably occurred naturally in Ireland. During the late Pleistocene era, reindeer occurred as far south as Nevada and Tennessee in North America and as far south as Spain in Europe. Today, wild reindeer have disappeared from these areas, especially from the southern parts, where it vanished almost everywhere. Large populations of wild reindeer are still found in Norway, Finland, Siberia, Greenland, Alaska and Canada.
  According to the Grubb (2005), Rangifer tarandus is "circumboreal in the tundra and taiga" from "Svalbard, Norway, Finland, Russia, Alaska (USA) and Canada including most Arctic islands, and Greenland, south to northern Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia; now only domesticated or feral?), Sakhalin Island, and USA (Northern Idaho and the Great Lakes region). Reindeer were introduced to, and feral in, Iceland, Kerguelen Islands, South Georgia Island, Pribilof Islands, St. Matthew Island."
  There is strong regional variation in Rangifer herd size. There are large population differences among individual herds and the size of individual herds has varied greatly since 1970. The largest of all herds (in Taimyr, Russia) has varied between 400,000 and 1,000,000; the second largest herd (at the George River in Canada) has varied between 28,000 and 385,000.
  While Rangifer is a widespread and numerous genus in the northern Holarctic, being present in both tundra and taiga (boreal forest), by 2013, many herds had "unusually low numbers" and their winter ranges in particular were smaller than they used to be. Caribou and reindeer numbers have fluctuated historically, but many herds are in decline across their range. This global decline is linked to climate change for northern migratory herds and industrial disturbance of habitat for non-migratory herds. Barren-ground caribou are susceptible to the effects of climate change due to a mismatch in the phenological process, between the availability of food during the calving period.
   In November 2016, it was reported that more than 81,000 reindeer in Russia had died as a result of climate change. Longer autumns leading to increased amounts of freezing rain created a few inches of ice over lichen, starving many reindeer.
caption: Swedish reindeer walking
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