A caribou mom and her 3-4 week old calfCopyright 2007 Lydia Hinshaw
FAIRBANKS, AK -- My job is to drive tourists along a road where they can see wildlife.
So what did I do on my day off? I visited the Robert G. White Large Animal Research Station (LARS), which is part of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.
I'd visited LARS before, prior to my bicycle trip down the Alaska Highway in 1999.
I'd always wanted to go back when I could spent more time, and last week I got the chance.
We took a tour with a graduate student who told us all about the facility's musk oxen and caribou/reindeer.
One thing I learned is that caribou and reindeer are the same species. The main difference is that caribou live in North America and run wild, while reindeer are domesticated animals who live in northern Europe and Asia.
The reindeer in Scandinavia and Siberia are raised and herded for their meat and milk. They've also historically been used as work animals, harnessed to sleighs and wagons.
The most disappointing thing about the LARS was that there was no place to take pictures without shooting through a fence. You can see faint traces of the wire in this photo of a caribou and her calf.
Within an hour or so of birth, this little one was capable of running at 20 mph. He has to go fast to be able to outrun the wolves who would snack on him.
Another interesting fact about caribou: Both genders have horns. The male loses his in the fall after the rut. The female keeps hers over the winter, throughout her pregnancy, finally shedding them after giving birth in the spring.
Scientists believe this is nature's way of helping pregnant females get enough to eat. A caribou cow can use her horns to keep males from bullying her away from the food (mostly lichens) she needs to nourish herself and her unborn calf.
Something to think about next Christmas: Those reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh all have horns, right? The only reindeer who have horns on Dec. 24 are pregnant.
So what did I do on my day off? I visited the Robert G. White Large Animal Research Station (LARS), which is part of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.
I'd visited LARS before, prior to my bicycle trip down the Alaska Highway in 1999.
I'd always wanted to go back when I could spent more time, and last week I got the chance.
We took a tour with a graduate student who told us all about the facility's musk oxen and caribou/reindeer.
One thing I learned is that caribou and reindeer are the same species. The main difference is that caribou live in North America and run wild, while reindeer are domesticated animals who live in northern Europe and Asia.
The reindeer in Scandinavia and Siberia are raised and herded for their meat and milk. They've also historically been used as work animals, harnessed to sleighs and wagons.
The most disappointing thing about the LARS was that there was no place to take pictures without shooting through a fence. You can see faint traces of the wire in this photo of a caribou and her calf.
Within an hour or so of birth, this little one was capable of running at 20 mph. He has to go fast to be able to outrun the wolves who would snack on him.
Another interesting fact about caribou: Both genders have horns. The male loses his in the fall after the rut. The female keeps hers over the winter, throughout her pregnancy, finally shedding them after giving birth in the spring.
Scientists believe this is nature's way of helping pregnant females get enough to eat. A caribou cow can use her horns to keep males from bullying her away from the food (mostly lichens) she needs to nourish herself and her unborn calf.
Something to think about next Christmas: Those reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh all have horns, right? The only reindeer who have horns on Dec. 24 are pregnant.
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