Editing Reindeer (section)

== Species and subspecies ==

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Extant species and subspecies of ''Rangifer''
! width=9.5% | Species<br>(1-species taxonomy)
! width=10% | Species<br>(6-species taxonomy){{efn|The 6-species taxonomy is based on a revision by Harding (2022).<ref name="Harding-2022" /><ref name="Harding-2022-2" /><ref name="Harding-2022-3">{{cite web |last=Harding |first=Lee E. |date=2022b |title=Genetic distance |url=https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/80233/download/suppl/32/}} Supplementary file 2 for {{harvp|Harding|2022}}.</ref>}}
! width=12.5% | Subspecies
! width=12.5% | Common name
! width=13% | Sedentary / migratory
! width=14.5% | Range
! width=13.5% | Weight of male
! width=14.5% | Type locality / specimen
|-
| rowspan="19" |''R. tarandus''<br>(Linnaeus, 1758)<br>''reindeer'' or ''caribou''
| rowspan="8" |''R. arcticus''<br>Richardson, 1829<br>''Barren-ground caribou''
|[[File:Barren ground caribou grazing with autumn foliage in background.jpg|180px]]<br />'' R. t. arcticus'' or<br>''R. a. articus''<br>(Richardson, 1829) ||[[barren-ground caribou]]|| migratory ||the [[Arctic Archipelago|High Arctic islands]] of [[Nunavut]] and the [[Northwest Territories]], Canada and western [[Greenland]] (except for the southwestern region)||{{cvt|150|kg}}
|"Fort Enterprise, Winter Lake, [[Mackenzie District]], N.W.T., Canada" given by Allen 1908; Neotype no. 22066 (for the species)
|-
|[[File:Caribou.jpg|180px]]<br />''R. t. arcticus'' or<br>''R. a. arcticus''<br>(Richardson, 1829)
|[[Porcupine caribou]] (an ecotype of the barren-ground caribou)
|migratory
|summers in the northern Yukon mountains and the coastal plains; winters in the [[Taiga|boreal forest]]s of [[Alaska]] and the [[Yukon]] 
|the same as for the subspecies
|
|-
|''R. t. fortidens'' or<br>''R. a. fortidens''<br>(Hollister, 1912)
|[[Rocky Mountain caribou]]
|short migrations: summers in alpine forest and winters in lowland forest
|the Canadian [[Rocky Mountains]]
|"Largest of the caribou, exceeding in measurements the largest specimens of ''Rangifer osborni'' and ''Rangifer montanus''."
|"head of Moose Pass branch of the [[Smoky River]], [[Alberta]] (north-east of [[Mount Robson]])"; USNM No. 174505
|-
|''R. t. granti'' or<br>''R. a. granti''<br>([[Joel Asaph Allen|Allen]], 1902)
|[[Porcupine caribou#Taxonomy|Grant's caribou]]
|sedentary (makes short movements to seasonal habitats)<ref name="Allen1902">{{Cite journal |last=Allen |first=J. A. |date=1902 |title=A new caribou from the Alaska Peninsula |url=https://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitstream/handle/2246/1666//v2/dspace/ingest/pdfSource/bul/B016a10.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |journal=Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History |volume=XVI |pages=119–127 |id=Article X |hdl=2246/1666}}</ref>{{rp|127}}
|the western end of the [[Alaska Peninsula]] and the adjacent islands<ref name="Allen1902" />{{rp|127}}
|
|"Western end of [[Alaska Peninsula]], opposite [[Popof Island|Popoff Island]], Alaska"; AMNH no. 17593<ref name="Allen1902" />{{rp|122}}
|-
|[[File:1999Mt-Caribou002 crop-AI.jpg|alt=Selkirk Mountain caribou|180px]]<br>''R. t. montanus'' or<br>''R. a. montanus''<br>(Seton-Thompson, 1899)
|[[Selkirk Mountains caribou]]
|twice-yearly altitudinal movements
|the [[Columbia Mountains]] (specifically the [[Selkirk Mountains|Selkirk]], [[Purcell Mountains|Purcell]] and [[Monashee Mountains]]) in [[British Columbia]], Canada and [[Washington (state)|Washington]], [[Idaho]] and [[Montana]], United States
|no data
|"[[Illecillewaet River|Illecillewaet]] watershed, near [[Revelstoke, British Columbia|Revelstoke]], [[Selkirk Mountains|Selkirk Range]], [[British Columbia|B. C.]]"; NMC no. 232
|-
|[[File:Pink-Mt009crop-AI.jpg|alt=Osborn's caribou|180px]]<br>''R. t. osborni'' or<br>''R. a. osborni''{{efn|name="2star"|** <text missing>}}<br>(Allen, 1902)<ref name="MSW3" />{{efn|name="n1"}}<ref name="Geist" />||[[Osborn's caribou]]|| short migrations: summers in alpine forest and winters in lowland [[muskeg]]|| [[British Columbia]], Canada||males up to {{cvt|340|kg}}
|"[[Cassiar Mountains]], [[British Columbia]]; AMNH no. 15714
|-
|[[File:Peary caribou - Bathurst Island.jpg|180px]]<br />''R. t. pearyi'' or<br>''R. a. pearyi''<br>(Allen, 1902)<ref name="Banfield_1961" />||[[Peary caribou]]|| an island population that makes local movements both within and among islands ||the [[Arctic Archipelago|High Arctic islands]] (except for [[Baffin Island]]) of [[Nunavut]] and the [[Northwest Territories]], Canada<ref name="HBW" />||smallest North American subspecies: males average {{cvt|70|kg}}
|"Ellesmere Land <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Ellesmere Island]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>, N. Lat. 79⁰"; AMNH no. 19231
|-
|''R. t. stonei'' or<br>''R. a. stonei''<br>(Allen, 1901)
|[[Stone's caribou]]
|altitudinal movements
|the mountains of southern [[Alaska]] and the southeastern [[Yukon]]
|no data
|"[[Kenai Peninsula]], [[Alaska]]"; AMNH no. 16701
|-
| rowspan="3" |''R. caribou''<br>(Gmelin, 1788)<br>''woodland caribou''
|[[File:Woodland Caribou Southern Selkirk Mountains of Idaho 2007.jpg|180px]]<br />''R. t. caribou'' or<br>''R. c. caribou''<br>(Gmelin, 1788) ||[[boreal woodland caribou]]<br /><br />|| sedentary (makes short movements to seasonal habitats) ||the boreal forests of northeastern Canada<ref name="HBW" />||males average {{cvt|180|kg}}, up to {{cvt|272|kg}}
|Type locality amended to "[[eastern Canada]]" (Miller Jr. 1912); NMC Neotype no. 4800
|-
|[[File:Caribou Rangifer tarandus caribou (47796957741).jpg|180px]]<br />''R. t. caboti'' or<br>''R. c. caboti''{{efn|name="2star"}}<br>([[Glover Morrill Allen|G. M. Allen]], 1914)<ref name="MSW3" />{{efn|name="n1"|Banfield rejected this classification in 1961. However, Geist and others considered it valid. Bangs (1896) is invalid as a taxonomic authority, as his two-page pamphlet was not published.<ref name="Harding-2022"/>}}<ref name="Geist" />||[[Labrador caribou]] or Ungava caribou|| migratory (except for the [[Torngat Mountains|Torngat Mountain]] population DU10)|| [[northern Quebec]] and northern [[Labrador]], Canada
|no data
|"Thirty miles north of [[Nachvak Fiord|Nachvak]] <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Torngat Mountains]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>, northeast coast of Labrador", MCZ No. 15,372
|-
|[[File:Woodland Caribou, Newfoundland.jpg|180px]]<br />''R. t. terranovae'' or<br>''R. c. terranovae''<br>(Allen, 1896)<ref name="MSW3" />{{efn|name="n1"}}<ref name="Geist" />||[[Newfoundland caribou]]|| ||[[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]], Canada ||139.6&nbsp;kg (3 adult males)<ref name="Fong1982">{{cite journal |last1=Fong |first1=D. W. |title=Immobilization of caribou with etorphine plus acepromazine |journal=The Journal of Wildlife Management |date=1982 |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=560–562 |doi=10.2307/3808683 |jstor=3808683 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3808683 |access-date=5 February 2023}}</ref>
|"[[Grand Lake (Newfoundland and Labrador)|Grand Lake]], [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]]"; AMNH 11775
|-
| rowspan="2" |''R. fennicus''<br>Lönnberg, 1909<br>''forest reindeer''
|[[File:Finnish forest reindeer (Rangifer tarandus fennicus).jpg|180px]]<br />''R. t. fennicus'' or<br>''R. f. fennicus''<br>(Lönnberg, 1909) ||[[Finnish forest reindeer]] || migratory ||northwestern [[Russia]] and [[Finland]]<ref name="HBW"/><ref name="Sami">{{cite web |title=Reindeer |work=The Sámi and their reindeer |publisher=University of Texas|location=Austin, Texas |url= http://www.utexas.edu/courses/sami/diehtu/siida/reindeer/Reindeer/reindeer_main.html|access-date=2014-01-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130723123401/http://www.utexas.edu/courses/sami/diehtu/siida/reindeer/Reindeer/reindeer_main.html|archive-date=2013-07-23|url-status=live}}</ref>||{{cvt|150|-|250|kg}}
|"Torne District [in [[Enontekiö]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>, Finnish [[Lapland (Finland)|Lappland]]"; NR No. 4661, Stockholm
|-
|''R. t. valentinae'' or<br>''R. f. valentinae''{{efn|name="2star"}}<br>(Flerov, 1933)<ref name="MSW3" />|| [[Siberian forest reindeer]]|| altitudinal migration || the [[Ural Mountains]], Russia and the [[Altai Mountains]], [[Mongolia]]<ref name="HBW" />||no data
|"Head of [[Chulyshman]] River, North-Eastern [[Altai Republic|Altai]], [[Siberia]]"; skin ZMASL no. 22599, skull no. 10214
|-
|''R.&nbsp;groenlandicus''<br/>(Borowsky, 1780)
|[[File:Kangerlussuaq à Sissimiut 9 Renne Groenland 2009 Expédition ACarré.JPG|180px]]<br />''R. groenlandicus'' or<br>''R. t. groenlandicus''<br>(Borowsky, 1780){{efn|Although most taxonomic authorities over the years recognized "Greenland Caribou" as a distinct subspecies, several gave the name as a subspecies of ''Cervus [Rangifer] tarandus'' for North American barren-ground caribou, ''groenlandicus'' having priority over other names. The name dates from George Edwards (1743),<ref>{{cite book |author=Edwards, George |year=1743 |title=A natural history of uncommon birds, and of some other rare and undescribed animals, quadrupedes, reptiles, fishes, insects, etc. Exhibited in two hundred and ten copper-plates, from designs copied immediately from nature, and curiously coloured after life, with a full and accurate description of each figure. Part I |place=London |doi=10.5962/bhl.title.115782}}</ref> who claimed to have seen a male specimen ("head of perfect horns...") from Greenland and said that a Captain Craycott had brought a live pair from Greenland to England in 1738.}} ||Western Greenlandic Caribou or reindeer<!--DO NOT wikilink. There is a redirect that points to this article for these titles.-->
|sedentary
|four small areas in southwestern [[Greenland]]<ref name=Poole>Poole, K.G.; Cuyler, C.; Nymand, J. (2013) Evaluation of caribou ''Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus'' survey methodology in West Greenland. Wildlife Biology 19: 225-239.</ref>
|no data
|"[[Greenland]]"{{clarify|date=November 2022}}
|-
|''R. platyrhynchus''<br/>(Vrolik, 1829)<br/>''Svalbard reindeer''
|[[File:Svalbardrein pho.jpg|180px]]<br />''R. platyrhynchus'' or<br>''R. t. platyrhynchus''<br>(Vrolik, 1829) ||[[Svalbard reindeer]] || an island population that makes local movements both within and among islands ||the [[Svalbard]] Archipelago of [[Norway]]<ref name="HBW" />||smallest of the reindeer; has extremely short legs
|"[[Svalbard|Spitzbergen]]"; Neotype no. M2625, Oslo
|-
| rowspan="4" |''R. tarandus''<br>(Linnaeus, 1758)<br>''tundra reindeer'' or ''mountain reindeer''
|''R. t. pearsoni''<br>(Lydekker, 1903)<ref name="MSW3" />||[[Novaya Zemlya reindeer]]|| an island population that makes local movements both within and among islands ||the [[Novaya Zemlya]] and [[New Siberia]] Archipelagoes of Russia and [[Wrangel Island]], Russia<ref name="HBW" />||no data
|"Island of [[Novaya Zemlya]]"; type specimen "In the possession of H. J. Pearson, Esq., [[Bramcote]], [[Nottinghamshire]], England" (Flerov, 1933).
|-
|''R. t. phylarchus''<br>(Hollister, 1912)<ref name="MSW3" />|| [[Kamchatkan reindeer]]|| ||restricted to the [[Kamchatka Peninsula]], Russia, after those reindeer west of the [[Sea of Okhotsk]] were found to actually be ''R. t. sibiricus''<ref name="HBW" /><ref name="Rozhkov-2020" />||no data
|"Southeastern [[Kamchatka Peninsula|Kamchatka]] [Kamchatka]"; USNM No. 21343
|-
|''R. t. sibiricus''<br>(Murray, 1866)<ref name="MSW3"/>|| [[Siberian tundra reindeer]]|| long-distance migrations||[[Siberia]], Russia,<ref name="HBW"/> [[Franz Josef Land]] during the [[Holocene]] from >6400–1300 [[Radiocarbon dating|cal. BP]] (from where it has been [[Local extinction|extirpated]])<ref>{{Cite journal |title=The Holocene occurrence of reindeer on Franz Josef Land, Russia |last1=Forman |first1=S. L. |last2=Lubinski |first2=D. |last3=Weihe |first3=R. R. |date=2000 |journal=The Holocene |volume=10 |issue=6 |pages=763–768 |doi=10.1191/09596830095015 |bibcode=2000Holoc..10..763F |s2cid=140183093}}</ref>||no data
|"[[Siberia]]. ...eastward of the [[Lena (river)|River Lena]]"; Type specimen of ''sibiricus'' unknown; however, Jacobi (1931) deposited a type specimen of "''asiaticus''" in the Museum of Leningrad (ZMASL), Buturlin coll. no. 240-1908
|-
|[[File:Reinbukken på frisk grønt beite. - panoramio.jpg|180px]]<br />''R. t. tarandus''<br>(Linnaeus, 1758)||[[mountain reindeer]] or Norwegian reindeer|| migratory ||the Arctic tundra of the [[Fennoscandia|Fennoscandian Peninsula]] in [[Norway]]<ref name="HBW" /><ref name="Sami" /> and the [[Eastern Region (Iceland)|Austfirðir]] in [[Iceland]] (where it has been [[Introduced species|introduced]])<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tinna-adventure.is/reindeer-iceland/ |title=Reindeer In Iceland|date=2017-02-13|website=Tinna Adventure|access-date=2019-09-09}}</ref>||no data
|[[Scandinavia]]
|}
Abbreviations: 
{{Div col}}
*''AMNH'' - [[American Museum of Natural History]]
*''BCPM'' - British Columbia Provincial Museum (= ''RBCM'' the [[Royal British Columbia Museum]])
*''NHMUK'' - [[British Museum]] (Natural History) (originally the ''BMNH'')
*''DMNH'' - [[Denver Museum of Nature and Science|Denver Museum of Natural History]]
*''MCZ'' - [[Museum of Comparative Zoology]]
*''MSI'' - Museum of the [[Smithsonian Institution]]
*''NMC'' - National Museum of Canada (originally the ''CGS'' Canadian Geological Survey Museum, now the ''CMN'' [[Canadian Museum of Nature]])
*''NR'' - [[Swedish Museum of Natural History|Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet]]
*''RSMNH'' - [[Royal Swedish Museum of Natural History]]
*''USNM'', - [[Smithsonian Institution|United States National Museum]]
*''ZMASL'' - [[Zoological Museum (Saint Petersburg)|Zoological Museum of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences]] (formerly the Zoological Museum of the Academy of Sciences), Leningrad
{{Div col end}}
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Extinct subspecies of ''Rangifer'' 
! Subspecies !! Common name !!Division!! style="min-width:110px; width:30%" |Range!! Weight of male!! Extinct since
|-
|''R. t. eogroenlandicus''<br>(Degerbøl, 1957)<ref name="eogroenlandicus"/> ||†East Greenland caribou<br>or [[Arctic reindeer]] ||[[tundra]] ||eastern [[Greenland]]||no data||1900
|-
|''R. t. dawsoni'' or<br>''R. a. dawsoni''<br>(Thompson-Seton, 1900)<ref name=Banfield_1961 /> ||†[[Queen Charlotte Islands caribou]]<br>or Dawson's caribou ||woodland ||[[Graham Island]] of [[Haida Gwaii]] off the coast of [[British Columbia]], Canada (formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands)||no data||1908
|-
|''R. t. setoni'' or<br>''R. f. setoni''<br>Flerov, 1933
|†Sakhalin reindeer
|[[tundra]]
|[[Sakhalin]] in the [[Sea of Okhotsk]], Russia
|no data
|2007?
|}

The table above includes, as per the recent revision, ''R. t. caboti'' (the Labrador caribou (the Eastern Migratory population DU4)), and ''R. t. terranovae'' (the Newfoundland caribou (the Newfoundland population DU5)), which molecular analyses have shown to be of North American (i.e., woodland caribou) lineage;<ref name="mtDNA2"/> and four mountain ecotypes now known to be of distant [[Beringia]]-[[Eurasia]] lineage (see [[Reindeer#Taxonomy|Taxonomy]] above).<ref name="mtDNA2"/><ref name="Flagstad" /><ref name="Horn-2018" />

The scientific name ''Tarandus rangifer buskensis'' Millais, 1915 (the Busk Mountains reindeer) was selected as the senior synonym to ''R. t. valentinae'' Flerov, 1933, in ''[[Mammal Species of the World]]''<ref name="MSW3" /> but Russian authors<ref name="Mizin-2018b" /> do not recognize Millais and Millais' articles in a hunting travelogue, ''The Gun at Home and Abroad'',<ref name="Millais-1915">Millais, J.G. (1915) The Asiatic reindeer and elk. In: Carruthers, D.; Millais, J.G.; Wallace, H.F.; Kennion, L.C.R.L.; Barklay, F.G. (eds.) ''The Gun at Home and Abroad''. London & Counties Press Association Ltd., London, U.K., 216-223.</ref> seem short of a taxonomic authority.<ref name="Harding-2022" />

The scientific name ''groenlandicus'' is fraught with problems. Edwards (1743)<ref>Edwards, George (1743) ''A natural history of uncommon birds and of some other rare and undescribed animals quadrupedes, reptiles, fishes, insects &c exhibited in two Hundred and ten copper-plates, from designs copied immediately from nature, and curiously coloured after Life with a full and accurate description of each to which is added, a brief and general Idea of drawing and painting in water-colours; with Instructions for etching on copper with aqua fortis; likewise some thoughts on the passage of birds; and additions to many of the subjects described in this work. Vol. Part I'', London, 248 pp. {{doi|10.5962/bhl.title.115782}}</ref> illustrated and claimed to have seen a male specimen ("head of perfect horns...") from Greenland and said that a Captain Craycott had brought a live pair from Greenland to England in 1738. He named it ''Capra groenlandicus'', Greenland reindeer. Linnaeus,<ref>Linné [Linnæus], C. (1767) ''Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis Editio 12. Vol. Tomus I Editio duodecima'', Vindobonae, Upsalla, Sweden, 1,327 pp.</ref> in the 12th edition of ''Systema naturae'', gave ''grœnlandicus'' as a synonym for ''Cervus tarandus''. Borowski<ref>Borowski, G.H. (1780) ''Gemeinnüzzige Naturgeschichte des Thierreichs: darinn die merkwürdigsten und nüzlichsten Thiere in systematischer Ordnung beschrieben, und die Geschlechter in Abbildungen nach der Natur vorgestellet werden. Vol. 1 Part 4'', Gottlieb August Lange, Berlin and Stralsund, 360 pp.</ref> disagreed (and again changed the spelling), saying ''Cervus grönlandicus'' was morphologically distinct from Eurasian tundra reindeer. Baird<ref>Baird, S.F. (1859) ''Mammals of North America: the description of species based chiefly on the collections in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution''. J. B. Lippincott, Washington D.C., 764 pp.</ref> placed it under the genus ''Rangifer'' as ''R. grœnlandicus''. It went back and forth as a full species or subspecies of the barren-ground caribou (''R. arcticus'') or a subspecies of the tundra reindeer (''R. tarandus''), but always as the Greenland reindeer / caribou. Taxonomists consistently documented morphological differences between Greenland and other caribou / reindeer in cranial measurements, dentition, antler architecture, etc.<ref>Allen, G.M. (1942) Extinct and vanishing mammals of the Western Hemisphere with the marine species of all the oceans. American Committee for International Wildlife Protection Special Publication No. 11: 297-322.</ref><ref>Lydekker, R. (1898) ''Deer of all lands. a history of the family Cervidæ living and extinct''. Rowland Ward, Limited, London, U.K., 329 pp.</ref> Then Banfield (1961)<ref name="Banfield-1961" /> in his famously flawed revision, gave the name ''groenlandicus'' to all the barren-ground caribou in North America, Greenland included, because ''groenlandicus'' pre-dates Richardson's<ref>Richardson, J. (1829) ''Fauna boreali-americana; or, the zoology of the northern parts of British America; containing descriptions of the objects of natural history collected on the late northern land expeditions, under command of Captain Sir John Franklin, R.N. Vol. 1 Quadrupeds'', John Murray, London, U.K., 300 pp.</ref> ''R. arctus''. However, because genetic data shows the Greenland caribou to be the most distantly related of any caribou to all the others (genetic distance, FST = 44%,<ref name="Yannic-2013" /> whereas most cervid (deer family) species have a genetic distance of 2% to 5%<ref name="Harding-2022-3" />)--as well as behavioral and morphological differences—a recent revision returned it to species status as ''R. groenlandicus''.<ref name="Harding-2022" /> Although it has been assumed that the larger caribou that appeared in Greenland 4,000 years ago originated from [[Baffin Island]] (itself unique; see [[Reindeer#Taxonomy|Taxonomy]] above), a reconstruction of LGM glacial retreat and caribou advance (Yannic et al. 2013)<ref name="Yannic-2013" /> shows colonization by NAL lineage caribou more likely. Their PCA and tree diagrams show Greenland caribou clustering outside of the Beringian-Eurasian lineage.

The scientific name ''R. t. granti'' has a very interesting history. Allen (1902)<ref name="Allen1902" /> named it as a distinct species, ''R. granti'', from the "western end of [[Alaska Peninsula]], opposite [[Popof Island|Popoff Island]]" and noting that:<blockquote>''Rangifer granti'' is a representative of the Barren Ground group of Caribou, which includes ''R. arcticus'' of the Arctic Coast and ''R. granlandicus'' of Greenland. It is not closely related to ''R. stonei'' of the Kenai Peninsula, from which it differs not only in its very much smaller size, but in important cranial characters and in coloration. ...The external and cranial differences between ''R. granti'' and the various forms of the Woodland Caribou are so great in almost every respect that no detailed comparison is necessary. ...According to Mr. Stone, ''Rangifer granti'' inhabits the " barren land of Alaska Peninsula, ranging well up into the mountains in summer, but descending to the lower levels in winter, generally feeding on the low flat lands near the coast and in the foothills...As regards cranial characters no comparison is necessary with ''R. montanus'' or with any of the woodland forms."</blockquote>Osgood<ref name="Osgood-1909" /> and Murie (1935),<ref name="Murie-1935" /> agreeing with ''granti''{{'}}s close relationship with the barren-ground caribou, brought it under ''R. arcticus'' as a subspecies, ''R. t. granti''. Anderson (1946)<ref name="Anderson-1946" /> and Banfield (1961),<ref name="Banfield-1961" /> based on statistical analysis of cranial, dental and other characters, agreed. But Banfield (1961) also synonymized Alaska's large ''R. stonei'' with other mountain caribou of British Columbia and the Yukon as invalid subspecies of woodland caribou, then ''R. t. caribou''. This left the small, migratory barren-ground caribou of Alaska and the Yukon, including the [[Porcupine caribou]] herd, without a name, which Banfield rectified in his 1974 ''Mammals of Canada'' <ref>Banfield, Alexander William Francis. ''Mammals of Canada'' (1974). University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Ontario, 438 pp.</ref> by extending to them the name "''granti''". The late [[Valerius Geist]] (1998), in the only error in his whole illustrious career, re-analyzed Banfield's data with additional specimens found in an unpublished report he cites as "Skal, 1982", but was "not able to find diagnostic features that could segregate this form from the western barren ground type." But Skal 1982 had included specimens from the ''eastern'' end of the [[Alaska Peninsula]] and the [[Kenai Peninsula]], the range of the larger Stone's caribou. Later, geneticists comparing barren-ground caribou of Alaska with those of mainland Canada found little difference and they all became the former ''R. t. groenlandicus'' (now ''R. t. arcticus''). ''R. t. granti'' was lost in the oblivion of invalid taxonomy until Alaskan researchers sampled some small, pale caribou from the western end of the Alaska Peninsula, their range enclosing the type locality designated by Allen (1902) and found them to be genetically distinct from all other caribou in Alaska.<ref>Colson, K.E.; Mager, K.H.; Hundertmark, K.J. (2014) Reindeer introgression and the population genetics of caribou in southwestern Alaska. Journal of Heredity 105: 585-596.</ref><ref name="Mager-2014">{{Cite journal |last1=Mager |first1=Karen H. |last2=Colson |first2=Kevin E. |last3=Groves |first3=Pam |last4=Hundertmark |first4=Kris J. |date=December 2014 |title=Population structure over a broad spatial scale driven by nonanthropogenic factors in a wide-ranging migratory mammal, Alaskan caribou |journal=Molecular Ecology |volume=23 |issue=24 |pages=6045–6057 |doi=10.1111/mec.12999 |issn=0962-1083 |pmid=25403098 |bibcode=2014MolEc..23.6045M |s2cid=22614440}}</ref> Thus, ''granti'' was rediscovered, its range restricted to that originally described.

Stone's caribou (''R. t. stonei''),<ref name="Allen-1901" /> a large montane type, was described from the Kenai Peninsula (where, apparently, it was never common except in years of great abundance),<ref name="Murie-1935" /> the eastern end of the Alaska Peninsula, and mountains throughout southern and eastern Alaska.<ref name="Allen-1901">Allen, J.A. (1901) Description of a new caribou from Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History XIV: 143-148.</ref> It was placed under ''R. arcticus'' as a subspecies,<ref name="Murie-1935" /> ''R. t. stonei'', and later synonymised as noted above. The same genetic analyses mentioned above for ''R. t. granti''<ref name="Mager-2014" /> resulted in resurrecting ''R. t. stonei'' as well.<ref name="Harding-2022" />

The Sakhalin reindeer (''R. t. setoni''), endemic to [[Sakhalin]], was described as ''Rangifer tarandus setoni'' Flerov, 1933, but Banfield (1961) brought it under ''R. t. fennicus'' as a junior synonym. The wild reindeer on the island are apparently extinct, having been replaced by domestic reindeer.

Some of the ''Rangifer'' species and subspecies may be further divided by [[ecotype]] depending on several behavioral factors – predominant habitat use (northern, tundra, mountain, forest, boreal forest, forest-dwelling, woodland, woodland (boreal), woodland (migratory) or woodland (mountain), spacing (dispersed or aggregated) and migration patterns (sedentary or migratory).<ref name="j2">{{Cite journal| title=Evolving perspectives on caribou population dynamics, have we got it right yet?| doi=10.7557/2.16.4.1225| journal=[[Rangifer (journal)|Rangifer]]| volume=16| issue=Special Issue 9| year=1996| last1=Bergerud| first1=A. T.| page=95| url=https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/rangifer/article/download/1225/1164| doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="j1">{{cite journal |last1=Festa-Bianchet |first1=M. |last2=Ray |first2=J.C. |last3=Boutin |first3=S. |last4=Côté |first4=S.D. |last5=Gunn |first5=A. |year=2011 |title=Conservation of Caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') in Canada: An Uncertain Future |journal=Canadian Journal of Zoology |volume=89 |issue=5 |pages=419–434 |doi=10.1139/z11-025 |display-authors=etal|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="b1">{{cite thesis |title=Population Structure and Hybridization of Alaskan Caribou and Reindeer: Integrating Genetics and Local Knowledge |first=Karen H. |last=Mager |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Alaska Fairbanks |location=Fairbanks, Alaska |url=http://www.uaf.edu/files/rap/Mager_16apr2012_Dissertation-1.pdf |access-date=27 December 2013 |year=2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228010933/http://www.uaf.edu/files/rap/Mager_16apr2012_Dissertation-1.pdf |archive-date=28 December 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> North American examples of this are the [[Torngat Mountains|Torngat Mountain]] population DU10, an ecotype of ''R. t. caboti''; a recently discovered and unnamed clade between the [[Mackenzie River]] and [[Great Bear Lake]] of Beringian-Eurasian lineage, an ecotype of ''R. t. osborni'';<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Polfus, J.L. |author2=Manseau, M. |author3=Klütsch, C.F.C. |author4=Simmons, D. |author5=Wilson, P.J. |date=2017 |title=Ancient diversification in glacial refugia leads to intraspecific diversity in a Holarctic mammal |journal=Journal of Biogeography |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=386–396|doi=10.1111/jbi.12918 |bibcode=2017JBiog..44..386P |s2cid=90484948 |doi-access=free |hdl=1993/31986 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> the Atlantic-[[Gaspé Peninsula|Gaspésie]] population DU11, an eastern montane ecotype of the boreal woodland caribou (''R. t. caribou'');<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Pelletier, F.A. |author2=Turgeon, G. |author3=Bourret, A. |author4=Garant, D. |author5=St-Laurent, M-H. |date=2019 |title=Genetic structure and effective size of an endangered population of woodland caribou |journal=Conservation Genetics |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=203–213|doi=10.1007/s10592-018-1124-1 |bibcode=2019ConG...20..203P |s2cid=254418477 }}</ref><ref name="Yannic-2018" /><ref>{{cite journal |author1=Frenette, J. |author2=Pelletier, F. |author3=St-Laurent, M-H |date=2020 |title=Linking habitat, predators and alternative prey to explain recruitment variations of an endangered caribou population |journal=Global Ecology and Conservation |volume=22 |at=e00920 |doi=10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e00920|s2cid=213145519 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2020GEcoC..2200920F }}</ref> the [[Baffin Island]] caribou, an ecotype of the barren-ground caribou (''R. t. arcticus'');<ref name="Jenkins-2018" /> and the [[Dolphin-Union caribou|Dolphin-Union]] "herd", another ecotype of ''R. t. arcticus''.<ref>{{cite conference |author1=Zittlau, K.A. |author2=Nagy, J. |author3=Gunn, A. |author4=Strobeck, C. |date=2009 |title=Genetic diversity among barren-ground caribou and the Porcupine caribou herds |editor1=McFarlane, K. |editor2=Gunn, A. |editor3=Strobeck, C. |book-title=Proceedings from the Caribou Genetics and Relationships Workshop, March 8–9, 2003 |pages=135–145 |publisher=Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Government of the Northwest Territories |id=Manuscript Report No. 183 |place=Edmonton, Alberta}}</ref> The last three of these likely qualify as subspecies,<ref name="Harding-2022" /> but they have not yet been formally described or named.