Reindeers feed on moss for survival.
While some regional variations of course exist, most reindeer depend on on lichen (commonly known as “reindeer moss”) as a food source in winter, where little else is offered to them.
Although they love feeding on leafy greens, mushrooms, carrots and apples and on occasion, bird eggs and arctic char, these are not available to them during the harshness of reindeer habitat — frigid and ecologically homogenous boreal forests, windswept and seasonally frozen tundra
Reindeer and other herbivores that eat lichens survive on this very low-energy food that manages to exist in a very punitive arctic environment.
Do you really know Dasher, Dancer, Donner and Blitzen? National Zoo Senior Scientist, Don Moore, a leading deer expert delivers these 25 riveting reindeer facts.