Queen Charlotte Islands caribou

The Queen Charlotte Islands caribou or Dawson's caribou (Rangifer tarandus dawsoni) is an extinct subspecies of the reindeer (or the caribou in North America) that once lived on Graham Island, the largest of the Haida Gwaii islands in British Columbia, Canada. Possible causes of extinction include habitat destruction, introduced disease and overhunting. It was grey in appearance. The last three caribou were killed in 1908 and can be seen at the Royal British Columbia Museum, where their pelts and bones are preserved and displayed.[2][3] Recent analysis of mtDNA suggests that the Queen Charlotte Islands caribou was not genetically distinct from the subspecies from the Canadian mainland.[4]

Queen Charlotte Islands caribou or Dawson's caribou

Extinct  (1908)  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Cervidae
Subfamily: Capreolinae
Genus: Rangifer
Species:
R. tarandus
Subspecies:
†R. t. dawsoni
Trinomial name
Rangifer tarandus dawsoni
(Seton, 1900)
Approximate range of subspecies of Rangifer tarandus. Overlap with other subspecies of caribou is possible for contiguous range. 1.R. t. caribou, which is subdivided into ecotypes: woodland (boreal), woodland (migratory) and woodland (mountain), 2.R. t. dawsoni (extinct 1908), 3. R. t. granti, 4. R. t. groenlandicus, 5. R. t. groenlandicus/pearyi, 6.R. t. pearyi

References
  1. Gunn, A. (2016). "Rangifer tarandus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T29742A22167140. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016.
  2. Dawson Caribou Archived 2014-04-07 at the Wayback Machine, Species at Risk
  3. "Caribou in Canada". Canadian Geographic. 2007-11-01. Retrieved 2016-06-16.
  4. Byun, S.A.; B.F. Koop, and T.E. Reimchen. (2002). Evolution of the Dawson caribou (Rangifer tarandus dawsoni). Can. J. Zool. 80(5): 956–960. doi:10.1139/z02-062. NRC Canada. online
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