[ Senses]
There is fairly general agreement on the Caribou’s keen sense of smell, good hearing, and less well-developed vision. But perhaps the last-mentioned attribute does not so much constitute poor eyesight as lack of perception or recognition. In other words, is it not possible that the animal is merely deficient in interpreting what it may see clearly enough?
References.—R. M. Anderson, 1913a: 8, and 1913b: 504; Stefánsson, 1913b: 164, 1914: 58, and 1921: 307; Blanchet, 1925: 34, and 1926b: 48; Birket-Smith, 1929 (1): 106; Seton, 1929, 3: 104; Murie, 1939: 245; Banfield, 1951a: 22.
[ Gaits]
The three principal gaits of the Caribou are walking, trotting, and loping. The animal seems to be in such a constant hurry that trotting is fairly habitual. The speed of this gait varies with the urgency of the occasion; also, according to Stefánsson (1921: 248), with sex and age. When frightened by an enemy, a Caribou may start off with a loping gait, but it soon settles down to its space-consuming trot, which keeps it safely ahead of a Wolf in any brief chase. The initial leap takes all four feet off the ground at once (cf. Buchanan, 1920: 126). According to Charles Schweder, it is usually a single animal that reacts in this way; but he has seen as many as six together leaping into the air. Fred Schweder, Jr., has seen both bucks and does in this performance. My own observations covered two lone adults (at least one a buck) and a lone fawn. One of the former turned and took a step or so before making the leap. The fawn (at Simons’ Lake in October), after allowing a canoe to approach within 100 feet, started off twice in succession, and each time with an initial leap into the air before settling down to a trot.
Even a summer fawn is reputed to be able to outdistance a Wolf. Lyon (1824: 67) found a Caribou too fleet for a greyhound.
In trotting rapidly, a Caribou points its snout pretty straight to the front, thus tilting the antlers backward a little. This gait, with front legs stretching well out in front and hind legs thrust backward correspondingly, gives a very characteristic and distinctive stamp to the appearance of a fast-trotting Caribou. (Compare the sketches of trotting Norway Reindeer by Seton, 1929, 3: pls. 15, 18.) It is apparently quite different from any normal gait of the White-tailed Deer. A buck’s well-grown antlers are of such weight as apparently to force it to hold its head rather rigidly while going at speed. If its head swayed appreciably, the top-heavy antlers might tend to throw the animal off balance. In a trotting gait, the hind foot may be planted just beyond the spot where the front foot had rested. In walking, the print of the hind foot may be superimposed on that of the other ([fig. 20]). The white “spats” just above the hoofs show to fine advantage when the Caribou trots; they fairly twinkle. In a retreating animal the white rump-patch appears in marked contrast to the dark brown adjacent fur.
In stepping across a shallow rapid in peaceful surroundings, the rhythmic splashings of the water to the front and the sides of the alternately descending hoofs make a scene of rare charm. In moving through deeper water, where the bottom is rough, rocky, and slippery, the animals may pick their way quite slowly. When alarmed near the water’s edge from some such cause as detecting a human scent, they may make great splashing leaps into a river or bay, fairly enveloping themselves in huge clouds of spray. There can be few more spirited scenes of animal life in the North.
I have seen several of the animals running with open mouths, even when they had gone no more than a quarter of a mile from a point of alarm. Every now and then a Caribou will be seen limping—perhaps from wounds, perhaps because of a leg sprained in rough terrain.
References.—Lyon, 1824: 67; Osborn, 1865: 227; Russell, 1895: 50, and 1898: 90; Hanbury, 1904: 131; Nelson, 1916: 460; Buchanan, 1920: 126; Stefánsson, 1921: 248; Blanchet, 1925: 33, and 1926b: 47; Critchell-Bullock, 1930: 193; Sutton and Hamilton, 1932: 83; Ingstad, 1933: 87; Murie, 1939: 245; Downes, 1943: 236-237; Harper, 1949: 226, 229; Banfield, 1951a: 21.