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Thursday, December 24, 2015

Porcupine Caribou at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

From USFWS National Wildlife Refuge System:




Not sure what the reindeer are doing at the North Pole today. At Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Porcupine caribou is named for its birthing grounds, the Porcupine River. The caribou’s 1,500-mile annual land migration -- between its winter range in the boreal forests of Alaska and northwest Canada to the coastal plain and its calving grounds on the Beaufort Sea coastal plain -- is the longest of any land mammal. In Eurasia, caribou are known as reindeer. Caribou are well adapted to the cold, with hollow-hair fur that covers almost all of its body – even its nose – and provides insulation in winter and flotation for swimming. Caribou are fast runners; they can reach speeds of almost 50 MPH. The Arctic Refuge is the largest national wildlife refuge in the National Wildlife Refuge System. 

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