Ranging across the Arctic tundra and boreal forest of northern Canada, the caribou is a large member of the deer family, closely related to the reindeer of northern Europe and Asia. For thousands of years the barren-ground caribou has been hunted by Inuit and First Nations peoples for its meat and hide, and it remains central to life in many northern communities. Well suited to the cold, the caribou has a dense double coat and broad, crescent-shaped hooves that spread its weight on snow and soft ground and serve as paddles when it swims across rivers and lakes.

The caribou's most distinctive feature is its antlers. Unlike almost every other member of the deer family, both the males and the females grow them, though the two differ sharply in shape and size. The bulls carry huge, sweeping antlers that can span well over a metre, and they shed them in early winter once the mating season ends. The cows keep their smaller, more slender antlers right through the winter and drop them only in spring, after their calves are born, an advantage when food beneath the snow is scarce.