Reindeer

The Reindeer is essentially a semi-domesticated Caribou, Rangifer tarandus (Linneaus, 1758), members of the same family (Cervidae) and subfamily (Odocoilinae) as North American wild deer species. All reindeer and caribou belong to the same worldwide species.

For many centuries these ungulates have been a mainstay of some Subarctic tribes, including several in Siberia (among them the Nenets, Evenks, Chukchi, Yukaghir, Koryak, and Khanty. To tribal peoples the reindeer are immensely useful for their meat, their hides, their milk and as transport. In Siberia reindeer culture and dog culture have often gone hand in hand; the Nenets tribes developing dogs adapted to reindeer herding (ancestors of today's Samoyed and Reindeer Herding Laika breeds while various Chukchi groups practised sled transport using reindeer as well as draught dogs.