What is the difference between the Finnish Forest Reindeer and Woodland Caribou?

What is the difference between the Finnish Forest Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus fennicus) and the Woodland Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou)?

The Finnish Forest Reindeer and the Woodland Caribou are sub-species of the Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), an ungulate (hoofed) mammal in the deer family.

The Finnish Forest Reindeer and the Woodland Caribou have long legs with wide, crescent-shaped, cloven (split) hooves for walking on snow. 

The Finnish Forest Reindeer and the Woodland Caribou have antlers. The male has large V-shaped antlers, that are larger than the female’s antlers.

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Finnish Forest Reindeer

The Finnish Forest Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus fennicus) is a large ungulate (hoofed) mammal in the deer family. It is a sub-species of the Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). It is also known as the European Forest Reindeer. It is an artiodactyl because it has cloven (split) hooves.

The Finnish Forest Reindeer has dark-brown to light-brown fur. Its coat has two layers of fur – a thick woolly undercoat and a longer-haired overcoat. It has long legs with wide, crescent-shaped, cloven hooves for walking across deep snow. It has white hair around its short tail. 

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Mesopotamian Fallow Deer

The Mesopotamian Fallow Deer (Dama mesopotamica) is an ungulate (hoofed), ruminant mammal in the Cervidae family. It is also known as the Persian Fallow Deer.

The Mesopotamian Fallow Deer is grey-brown to reddish-brown. The male has a short neck mane. The male has antlers, made from bone and covered with velvet. It is an even-toed ungulate with two toes on each hoof, like camels, goats, and cattle.

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Reeves’s Muntjac

The Reeves’s Muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi) is a small ungulate (hoofed) mammal. It is a deer. It is also known as the Chinese Muntjac.

The Reeves’s Muntjac has reddish-brown fur with striped markings on its face. Its belly, neck, chin, and the underside of its tail are creamy-white. It has a long tongue. The male has short antlers. The female has bony lumps on her head instead of antlers.  

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Woodland Caribou

The Woodland Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) is an ungulate (hoofed) mammal in the deer species. It is also known as the Reindeer.

The Caribou varies in size and colour, from light to dark. The Woodland Caribou has dark-brown fur. Its coat had two layers of fur – a thick woolly undercoat and a longer-haired overcoat. It has large feet with crescent-shaped, cloven (split) hooves, which are wide for walking on snow.

Both the male and the female grow antlers, although the female has smaller antlers. As antlers grow, they become covered in thick dark-brown velvet. The Woodland Caribou loses it antlers and grows a new pair each year.

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Wapiti

The Wapiti (Cervus canadensis) is also called a Canadian Elk. It is one of the largest species in the deer family in the world. The term Wapiti is from the Shawnee and Cree word meaning ‘white rump.’

The Wapiti is an ungulate because it has hooves, similar to camel, goat, or cattle. Only the male has antlers, which are made of bone, and are covered with a soft layer of skin, called velvet. Velvet is shed in summer. The Wapiti can have various colours of brown, grey, or reddish fur, which grows thicker in winter to keep it warm. It has a small white rump patch, with a short tail.

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Sika Deer

The Sika Deer (Cervus nippon) is a medium-sized ungulate (hoofed) mammal in the Cervidae family of deer. It is also known as the Spotted Deer or Japanese Deer. 

It has mahogany to black fur. The colour becomes darker in winter. The Sika Deer is one of the few deer species that does not lose its spots when it reaches maturity. The Sika stag (male) has upright antlers. The female has a pair of distinctive black bumps on her forehead. 

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