Biggest Caribou We Ever Did See (Aug. 28, 2011)

As we were crossing the flats this evening on our way home from town we saw 4 caribou close to the road, about 40 yards away. Two of them were the biggest caribou we have seen since moving up here. The other 2 were young ones; one probably born this year and the other probably the year before. One of the big ones had a double shovel, which is not very common. Caribou have three tiers of antlers: top, middle, and bottom. The bottom tier is the shovel, most full grown caribou only have one. Both of the larger caribou had 4 points on each side of their top tier. The one with the double shovel had 3 points on each side of it middle tier. It also had a nice thick white chest. An interesting fact about caribou: they are the only member of the deer family in which both males and females have antlers. This makes it much more difficult to tell them apart.