Arctic reindeer


The Arctic reindeer, properly known as the East Greenland caribou, was a subspecies of the reindeer that once lived in eastern Greenland. It has been extinct since 1900.
Archaeologists have found bones of small caribou the size of Peary caribou, Rangifer arcticus pearyi, throughout Greenland in the Illinoian-Wisconsin interglacial and through the LGM and early Holocene.  Degerbøl described the East Greenland caribou, R. t. eogroenlandicus, a small caribou that became extinct about 1900, from a relict enclave in north-eastern Greenland. However, Anderson thought that the small caribou that were occasionally found in northwest Greenland were Peary caribou. Bennike, comparing bones and noting that Peary caribou have been documented crossing Nares Strait to Greenland, doubted that pearyi and eogroenlandicus were subspecifically distinct. That Peary caribou shared certain mtDNA haplotypes and morphological similarities with it casts further doubt on the validity of R. t. eogroenlandicus. Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit records that Peary caribou do, occasionally, cross to Greenland.
The Greenland caribou or reindeer is larger and darker and not referable to either R. a. pearyi or R. t. eogroenlandicus.

Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Caribou on most of the High Arctic islands are Peary caribou, R. arcticus pearyi..

Svalbard, Norway

Reindeer on the island group of Svalbard have recently been classified as a full species, R. platyrhinchus. See Reindeer.

Other reindeer and caribou populations

Many other caribou and reindeer live in Arctic regions, that is, north of the Arctic Circle at 66° North. See Reindeer.