Dawson's caribou
extinct subspecies of caribou
The Dawson's caribou, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands caribou (Rangifer tarandus dawsoni) was a population of woodland caribou that once lived on Graham Island, the largest of the islands within the Haida Gwaii archipelago, located off the coast of British Columbia, Canada.
Description
Discovery
The Haida Gwaii archipelago has been inhabited by indigenous people for thousands of years. Despite this, it is not reported that the indigenous population had much, if any, knowledge of the caribou, likely due to the two inhabiting different parts of Graham Island. The first known written record of the Dawson's caribou came from George Mercer Dawson, a member of the Geological Survey of Canada, who mentioned the animal in a 1878 report on the islands, initially mistaking it for a type of elk. Dawson eventually brought news of the caribou to Ernest Thompson Seton, an author and wildlife artist, who officially described the animal in 1900 and named it in Dawson's honour.
Appearance
The subject of the coat colour of the Dawson's caribou is a matter of some contention. While often described as pale with few to no markings, which would be typical of an insular ungulate, this description is likely based on aged museum skins, as the remains of recently killed individuals photographed in 1908 appear darker in colour.
The Dawson's caribou is also described as smaller than its mainland counterpart, which is likely due to insular dwarfism, another trait common in insular ungulates.
Some sources report both sexes as having antlers, while others state females were antlerless. In both cases, the antlers themselves are described as reduced in size, in comparison to mainland caribou, and remarkably abnormal in shape.
The public source identifies “Dawson's caribou” as extinct subspecies of caribou. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Dawson's, caribou and extinct.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3022131. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1878, 1900 and 1908.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dawson's caribou” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.