Life Cycle Male caribou compete with each other for females and will sometimes fight using their antlers. Migratory caribou, also commonly called barren-ground or tundra caribou, were highly valued by cultures living in Arctic and Subarctic areas including the Athapaskan, Dogrib, Hare (Sahtu), Loucheux (Gwich’in), Kutchin (Gwich’in), Inuit (including Nuvorugmiut, Caribou), Inupiat, Inuvialuit, Naskapi (Innu), Chipewyan and Algonquian. By Izzy McPhee | Updated October 19, 2017 The animals of the Arctic live through freezing weather and manage to find shelter, food and safety, and carve out breeding periods, all in an area where many creatures would surely freeze to death. Caribou generally feed on green vascular plants, mushrooms, lichens, dwarf birch, sedges, cotton grass, and horsetails; which is indicative of a concentrate selector diet. So just like cattle, they chew on cud. It was once found in New England. Caribou have excellent senses of smell and hearing so that the hunters must be very careful when in pursuit. As vegetarians, reindeer and caribou get their fill from the grasses and shrubs that grow in the tundra. Caribou - Food Habits Caribou are ruminants which mean they have a four-chambered stomach. In the wintertime they dig under the snow for moss and other lichens to eat. It just dries out and goes dormant when there is little or no light or water. Which makes it ideal for the tundra. They also gather some of the wild foods that grow in the harsh landscape, such as berries, seaweed, grasses and tubers. Reindeer weight fluctuates throughout the year in accordance with the seasons. Which makes it ideal for the tundra. The North American range of caribou extends from Alaska, through the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, into the boreal forest and south through the Canadian Rockies and the Columbia and Selkirk Mountains. Caribou: During the majority of the year, they roam the tundra in small herds, but twice a year large herds of caribou cross the inland regions. Barren-ground, Porcupine caribou and Peary caribou live in the tundra, while the shy woodland caribou prefers the boreal forest. Information on Caribou in Alaska. Caribou is also known as a reindeer. Caribou are the only member of the deer family (Cervidae) in which both sexes grow antlers. Competition could be between a musk ox and a caribou. When food is scarce, it is not uncommon to see an arctic fox following a polar bear, hoping to feast on the leftovers of its last hunt. Caribou or reindeer occur both in the wild or as semi-domesticated herds. Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) are large, stout members of the deer family, with concave hooves that splay to support the animal in snow or soft tundra and which function as paddles in water.Caribou live in the arctic tundra, mountain tundra, and northern forests of North America, Russia, and Scandinavia.