American Rudolph

One of the most fascinating things about studying animals is learning about all of the seemingly improbable places that they can pop up in the wild.  We think of penguins as birds of the Antarctic (when we aren't incorrectly thinking of them as birds of the North Pole), but there are penguins on the equator, swimming alongside marine iguanas in the Galapagos Islands.  Three species of tapir live in the Neotropics, and then you have one randomly over in Southeast Asia.  Australia has a near monopoly on the marsupials, except for the various opossums in the Americas, one of which can be found as near at hand as my trashcan.  

Another animal that surprises some folks is the reindeer.  Reindeer ("caribou" in North America) are so closely associated with the Christmas legends that a lot of folks don't even think of them as real animals. When they do, perhaps they mostly think of them as domestic animals, which they are in Scandinavia.  Maybe they realize that they live in the wild as well, having seen their migratory herds tracked by nomadic wolves in a David Attenborough special.  But in any case, they are creatures of the frozen Far North.

Or are they?

Historically, there have been caribou living in the Lower 48.  Alaska, sure, but Idaho?  Washington?  That was the case until 2019 - just a few years ago - when scientists realized that the last free-roaming herd of caribou in the continental United States was teetering on the edge of extinction, with only three individuals left.  The animals were captured and relocated to a herd in British Colombia.  With that move, deemed necessary for the survival of those individuals and their genes, the species is extirpated in the Lower 48.  Will it ever return?  Who knows.  With restored habitat and protection, anything is possible.

Wouldn't that be a Christmas gift for the country?

The Last Wild Caribou of the Lower 48