Caribou

Expansion: Endangered Animals

Fame: 0.5 stars

Base Donation Amount: 60

Max Tour Value: 20

Adopt Rarity: 1

Prey Classification: Large Prey (adult), Medium Prey (young)

Zoopedia

Conservation Status: Vulnerable

Class: Mammals (Mammalia)

Order: Even-Toed Ungulates (Artiodactyla)

Family: Deer (Cervidae)

Genus: Rangifer

Species: tarandus

Subspecies: groenlandicus

Tundra

Arctic

To unlock the caribou in challenge or campaign games, you must earn a 1/2-star zoo fame rating for your zoo.

Caribou, North American deer of the same species as the reindeer of Eurasia. Caribou range in height from 87 to 140 cm (34 to 55 in) at the shoulder and weigh from 60 to 318 kg (130 to 701 lb). Both males and females have antlers, but the female's are smaller and simpler. Two principal groups exist: the Barren Ground, or Arctic, caribou and the woodland caribou.

Barren Ground caribou are native to the tundra regions of northern Canada, Greenland, and Alaska. Historically, the Inuit living in arctic regions have depended on these animals for survival, using every part of the body for food, implements, or clothing. The caribou usually live in small herds of cows and calves and a few bulls. Most of the older bulls stay in separate small bands, except during rut, and travel on the fringes of migrating herds. Breeding takes place in September and October, and the calves are born in May and June. These caribou have a gray or light brown summer coat and a white winter coat. In winter they gather in large herds and migrate south to warmer Canadian forests, sometimes traveling 5000 km (more than 1900 mi), then return north in springtime. The staple diet of caribou is lichens, but they also eat grasses, shrubs, tree shoots, and mushrooms. Plans for oil- and gas-pipeline construction in Alaska and Canada were altered, through environmentalist efforts, so as not to interfere with caribou migration.

Of less economic significance are the woodland caribou, which are darker and stockier and have heavier antlers than Barren Ground caribou. At one time they were common from Maine to Montana, but they have since been exterminated in most parts of the United States.

Fun Bluebuck Facts

Content adapted from Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2005. © 1993–2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Errors and Trivia

The Zoopedia entry lists the subspecies as R. t. groenlandicus, which only includes caribou from southwestern Greenland.

Caribou are mistakenly portrayed in Zoo Tycoon 2 as being unable to fly.

Caribou Exhibit Guide

The caribou and musk ox together make up one of the few multispecies exhibits that can be constructed at the start of the game. Needs 2+ animals.

The cheapest exhibit plan I could find that takes up more than 80 squares is an oblique rectangle costing $1,950. In the future I may do an article on how using diagonals affects Zoo Tycoon 2 fencing costs.

Adoption cost: $1,250

Space for first animal: 70 squares (280 triangles)

Space per additional animal: 10 squares (40 triangles)

Cheapest Fence: Chain link fence or hedge fence, $75/square, $1,950 total for a 2-animal exhibit

Food: None required (grazes and browses), eats branches or cycad leaves

Enrichment: None required, uses salt lick or scratching post

Shelter: None required, uses shade structure

Native Biome: Tundra (+10)

Other Compatible Biomes: Alpine (+2), Boreal Forest (0), Grassland (0), Temperate Forest (0)

Swims?: Yes

Total Cost: $4,450 for a 2-animal exhibit, excluding foliage or rocks


Compatible Animals (Tundra):

Compatible Animals (Other Biomes):

*Will eat baby caribou.