---
title: "Caribou"
description: "Rangifer tarandus — Mammals. The reindeer or caribou is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/caribou
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Caribou

> Rangifer tarandus — Mammals. The reindeer or caribou is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America.

- Scientific name: *Rangifer tarandus*
- Category: `mammals` (Mammals)
- Habitats: `mountains` (Mountains), `arctic` (Arctic)
- iNaturalist observations: 12834
- Wikidata: [Q39624](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q39624)
- iNaturalist taxon: [42199](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/42199)

## Names

- en: Caribou
- de: Ren
- es: Caribú
- fr: Renne
- nl: Rendier
- pt: Rena
- pl: Renifer tundrowy

## Countries with the most observations

CA (3457), US (2034), SJ (1478), NO (905), FI (827), SE (573), RU (378), IS (314), GL (166), GB (56), GS (49), TF (27)

## Summary

The reindeer or caribou is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only representative of the genus Rangifer. More recent studies suggest the splitting of reindeer and caribou. "All caribou and reindeer throughout the world are considered to be the same species, but there are 7 subspecies."

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeer

## Photo

![Caribou](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/caribou/medium.jpg)

Photo: Norrland · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/95739470

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/caribou?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).