Unlike Santa's reindeer living in the lap of luxury at the North Pole, wild reindeer that live in the barren tundra have to find their own food. Being too chilly for trees, the tundra is hospitable to only shrubs, grasses and lichen, which are abundant during the warmer seasons. However, during the winter when the grasses and shrubs are scarce reindeer survive off lichen, comprised mainly of quick-energy in the form of carbohydrates. In fact, they reportedly eat about 4-11 pounds of lichen each day.
Source:
Animal Planet
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tags: lichens, symbiosis, nature,
"I discovered the new species in 2007 while doing a survey for lichen diversity on Santa Rosa Island in California," said Kerry Knudsen, the lichen curator in the UCR Herbarium.
I suppose, if I wanted to make things easier, I would just start calling these the "Weekend Fractal" but it just doesn’t have the same ring.
Zen With Lichens.
Why only reindeer? What about other types of deer, elk, moose also found where there's not much to eat in the winter???