Caribous are more similar to global reindeers than previously believed and their habitat is endangered by climate change, according to University of Calgary researchers.
Everyone knows reindeers as the domesticated animals that pull Santa Claus' sleigh. Caribous are animals that look just like reindeers but are untamed and found in the wilds of North America and a new study by University of Calgary researchers claims that their appearance is not the only thing similar between the two animals. Also climate changes played a big role in their evolution and the same climate might lead to the extinction of caribous due to loss of habitat, according to a press release.
Caribous are regarded as the most northern species and are already endangered in southern Canada and the United States. They are bound to feel the effects of global warming, which in turn would endanger the species' habitat.
"The warming of the planet means the disappearance of their critical habitat in these regions. Caribou need undisturbed lichen-rich environments and these types of habitats are disappearing," said Marco Musiani of the University of Calgary.
A group of 21 researchers led by Musiani studied the DNA of reindeers in Scandinavia and Asia and of woodland caribou in North America to find out more about how their environments were affected in the past and will be influenced in the future by climate change.
Researchers found that both species are not as different genetically as some might believe, considering the geographical distance of habitat of the reindeer and caribou. They also noted that caribou living in North America evolved and became isolated during the last glaciations. During this time, Europe, Asia and Alaska were connected by a land bridge and reindeers were found in those three places. What's interesting is that during the same time, reindeers also evolved their unique characteristics but separately from the caribou.
"Then, at meltdown the two groups, reindeer from the North and caribou from the South, reunited and interbred in areas previously glaciated such as the southern Canadian Rockies," Musiani explained.
"Animals more closely related to reindeer occur in North America, throughout its northern and western regions, with some transitional zones, such as the one remarkably placed in the southern Canadian Rockies."
