Variation among New & Old Rangifer ssp: Reindeer vs Caribou

    Old World Rangifer t. tarandus are now typically domesticated animals, known as Reindeer. New World Rangifer tarandus caribou and related sub-species are still free-ranging, and efforts to domesticate them have failed. Hybridization between the two forms is uncommon: there is a marked size difference, the breeding seasons are offset by several weeks, and crosses that are made typically do not result in offspring. Efforts to introduce domesticated Reindeer into the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland were unsuccessful, with the introduced animals gradually dying out from poaching and neglect: they did however introduced a meningeal brain worm that has been responsible for much sickness, especially on the Avalon Peninsula. [Wilkerson, Mahoney, & Carr 2018. Genome, in press].