Rangifer tarandus dawsoni Thompson-Seton, 1900
Dawson's caribou, Dawson's dwarf caribou, Queen Charlotte Islands caribou, Queen Charlotte reindeer
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Rangifer dawsoni Thompson-Seton, 1900
Generally considered to be an invalid subspecies now. It's recent isolation from mainland populations resulted in slight morphological differences, but not sufficiently many to warrant subspecific status (Byun et al., 2002). But as noted by (Harding, 2022), it was treated as a valid subspecies by (Wilson & Mittermeier, 2011).
Conservation Status
Invalid (synonym)?
Last record: 1908; c.1935 (Goodwin & Goodwin, 1973)
Distribution
Graham Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Byun, S. A., Koop, B. F. and Reimchen, T. E. (2002). Evolution of the Dawson caribou (Rangifer tarandus dawsoni). Can. J. Zool. 80(5): 956-960.
Day, David. (1981). The Doomsday Book of Animals: A Natural History of Vanished Species. New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press.
Goodwin, Harry A. and Goodwin, J. M. (1973). List of mammals which have become extinct or are possibly extinct since 1600. Int. Union Conserv. Nat. Occas. Pap. 8: 1-20.
Harding, Lee E. (2022). Available names for Rangifer (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Cervidae) species and subspecies. ZooKeys 1119: 117-151. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1119.80233
Lydekker, Richard. (1915). Catalogue of the Ungulate Mammals in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. IV. Artiodactyla. London: British Museum. [p. 251]
Mathewes, Rolf W., Richards, Michael and Reimchen, Thomas E. (2019). Late Pleistocene age, size, and paleoenvironment of a caribou antler from Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. doi: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2018-0246 [Abstract]
Sealy, S. G. (2017). On the land mammals of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, by John Henry Keen, with a catalogue of specimens. Archives of Natural History 44(2): 259-274. [Abstract] [relevant reference?]
Wilson, D. E. and Mittermeier, R. A. (2011). Handbook of the mammals of the World volume 2 hoofed mammals. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. 886 pp.
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