AnimalsThe reindeer, called caribou in North America, is the only deer in which females as well as males grow antlers. Some herds travel very long distances each year between summer and winter feeding grounds.
Quick facts
- Scientific name
- Rangifer tarandus
- Group
- Mammals
- Diet
- Herbivore (eats plants)
- Lives in
- Arctic and far northern lands
- Habitat
- Tundra and northern forest
- A young one is called
- calf
- A group is called
- herd
- Conservation status
- Vulnerable
How it is classified
Scientists sort living things into groups within groups. Reading down, each step is a smaller group, ending with the species itself.
- Kingdom Animalia
- Phylum Chordata
- Class Mammalia
- Order Artiodactyla
- Family Cervidae
- Genus Rangifer
- Species Rangifer tarandus
Other members of the family Cervidae on this site: chital, moose, sambar.
More distant relatives in the order Artiodactyla: Bactrian camel, blackbuck, cow, dromedary camel, gaur, giraffe, goat, hippopotamus, nilgai, pig, sheep, water buffalo.
Classification follows the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Other reference works arrange some groups differently. How classification works.
Is it in danger?
The reindeer is listed as Vulnerable. The species faces a high risk of extinction in the wild.
This is the IUCN Red List category as recorded in Wikidata on 11 November 2026. The IUCN Red List itself is the authority and may carry a newer assessment. What the categories mean.