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This page is about caribou in North America. While acknowledging that caribou and reindeer are both R. tarandus, unlike the wikipedia article on reindeer, this page contains content on North American specific subspecies and ecotypes, their descriptions, naming and etymology, evolution, Biology and behaviour (Physical characteristics), their Diet, Reproduction and life-cycle, Social structure, migration and range and predators, Ecology (Distribution and habitat) in the North American context. This article also contains content on specific herds and populations in the United States and Canada and on Conservation status, Relationship with humans, First Nations and Inuit oral histories, In mythology and art and as a Canadian icon.

The reference system allows using shortened footnotes, will eventually have all references in alphabetical order. These footnotes allow the user to add in-line citations with page numbers and keeps the article text easier to read while editing. A great deal of effort had been made to include exact references that refer to specific herds, populations and subspecies and to avoid over-generalizing a complex topic. Effort has gone into finding the most robust references for the North American context. The quality and quantity of articles on caribou is increasing as conservation efforts increase. New technologies combined with indigenous traditional knowledge contribute to this research. Populations described in the wikipedia article on reindeer cannot keep up to date on all the changes taking place globally for the entire Rangifer tarandus species, and it is crucial to keep the information on populations as current as possible.

However, any user can add the simplest of references <ref>title</ref> and it will still work.

Dates are day/month/year.

I have requested that this article name be changed to caribou, so that a wikipedia search for caribou does not end at reindeer. The article on reindeer would be too long and unwieldy if this information was added there. That's how this article began... oceanflynn 05:22, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

So why have two articles on the same species? Kortoso (talk) 17:53, 26 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I have to admit I share this concern. There are not actually two different animals, jiust one animal with two different names. And I don't even believe it is accurate to say that all North Americans always call them caribou. In my experience, if you see them in the wild they are referred to as caribou, while captive or domesticated ones are in fact referred to as reindeer. Beeblebrox (talk) 22:47, 26 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

This situation is not optimal. We now have two articles about the same animal, based on the false premise that in North America they are always called caribou, while elsewhere they are always called reindeer. Even if that were true I still do not find it a compelling reason to have two articles on the same animal. Should we now have separate articles for "elevator" and "lift"? For "lorry" and "truck"? For "loo" "WC" "bathroom" "restroom" etc? I think not. Beeblebrox (talk) 18:24, 27 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Behold, from Alaska, where the wild animal is called a caribou and farmed or ranched is called a reindeer: [1] [2] [3] [4] Beeblebrox (talk) 18:26, 27 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Noting for the record that despite the way the merge proposal is framed I don't particularly care which way the merge goes. I don't wish to get in an WP:ENGVAR pissing contest, I just don't think we should have two articles on the same subject. Beeblebrox (talk) 18:31, 27 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

• Support as there is very little difference between the two articles. Plus we don't usually have different articles on the same subject just because they use a different name in other countries (eraser in North America but rubber in the rest of the world for example). There is one reindeer herd in Canada I know about. While I would prefer it to be at caribou it looks as if the original was at reindeer so caribou should probably be merged back there. CBWeather, Talk, Seal meat for supper? 16:45, 28 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

• Do not merge. Both are now major articles. -- Kayoty (talk) 17:57, 28 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]