It is hard to guess what a Reindeer weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) on average weights 108.73 kg (239.7 lbs).
The Reindeer is from the family Cervidae (genus: Rangifer). It is usually born with about 5.5 kg (12.12 lbs). They can live for up to 20.17 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 2.23 meter (7′ 4″). Usually, Reindeers have 2 babies per litter.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
The reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), also known as the caribou in North America, is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, sub-Arctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. This includes both sedentary and migratory populations. Rangifer herd size varies greatly in different geographic regions. The Taimyr herd of migrating Siberian tundra reindeer (R. t. sibiricus) in Russia is the largest wild reindeer herd in the world, varying between 400,000 and 1,000,000. What was once the second largest herd is the migratory boreal woodland caribou (R. t. caribou) George River herd in Canada, with former variations between 28,000 and 385,000. As of January 2018, there are fewer than 9,000 animals estimated to be left in the George River herd, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The New York Times reported in April 2018 of the disappearance of the only herd of southern mountain caribou in the lower 48 states, with an expert calling it “functionally extinct” after the herd’s size dwindled to a mere three animals.Rangifer varies in size and colour from the smallest, the Svalbard reindeer, to the largest, the boreal woodland caribou. The North American range of caribou extends from Alaska through Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut into the boreal forest and south through the Canadian Rockies and the Columbia and Selkirk Mountains. The barren-ground caribou, Porcupine caribou, and Peary caribou live in the tundra, while the shy boreal woodland caribou prefer the boreal forest. The Porcupine caribou and the barren-ground caribou form large herds and undertake lengthy seasonal migrations from birthing grounds to summer and winter feeding grounds in the tundra and taiga. The migrations of Porcupine caribou herds are among the longest of any mammal. Barren-ground caribou are also found in Kitaa in Greenland, but the larger herds are in Alaska, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.Some subspecies are rare and at least one has already become extinct: the Queen Charlotte Islands caribou of Canada. Historically, the range of the sedentary boreal woodland caribou covered more than half of Canada and into the northern States in the U.S. Woodland caribou have disappeared from most of their original southern range and were designated as threatened in 2002 by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). Environment Canada reported in 2011 that there were approximately 34,000 boreal woodland caribou in 51 ranges remaining in Canada.(Environment Canada, 2011b). Siberian tundra reindeer herds are in decline, and Rangifer tarandus is considered to be vulnerable by the IUCN.Arctic peoples have depended on caribou for food, clothing, and shelter, such as the Caribou Inuit, the inland-dwelling Inuit of the Kivalliq Region in northern Canada, the Caribou Clan in Yukon, the Inupiat, the Inuvialuit, the Hän, the Northern Tutchone, and the Gwich’in (who followed the Porcupine caribou for millennia). Hunting wild reindeer and herding of semi-domesticated reindeer are important to several Arctic and sub-Arctic peoples such as the Duhalar for meat, hides, antlers, milk, and transportation. The Sami people (Sápmi) have also depended on reindeer herding and fishing for centuries. In Sápmi, reindeer pull pulks.Male and female reindeer can grow antlers annually, although the proportion of females that grow antlers varies greatly between population and season. Antlers are typically larger on males. In traditional festive legend, Santa Claus’s reindeer pull a sleigh through the night sky to help Santa Claus deliver gifts to good children on Christmas Eve.
Animals of the same family as a Reindeer
We found other animals of the Cervidae family:
- Eld’s deer bringing 95.47 kilos (210.48 lbs) to the scale
- Pampas deer bringing 34.55 kilos (76.17 lbs) to the scale
- Roosevelt’s muntjac bringing 10.76 kilos (23.72 lbs) to the scale
- Thorold’s deer bringing 161.68 kilos (356.44 lbs) to the scale
- Sambar deer bringing 177.52 kilos (391.36 lbs) to the scale
- Pygmy brocket bringing 16.5 kilos (36.38 lbs) to the scale
- Chital bringing 69.5 kilos (153.22 lbs) to the scale
- Philippine deer bringing 49.1 kilos (108.25 lbs) to the scale
- Pudú bringing 9.61 kilos (21.19 lbs) to the scale
- Calamian deer bringing 39.66 kilos (87.44 lbs) to the scale
Animals with the same weight as a Reindeer
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Rangifer tarandus:
- Dall’s porpoise with a weight of 106.03 kilos (233.76 lbs)
- South Asian river dolphin with a weight of 93.49 kilos (206.11 lbs)
- Arctocephalus forsteri with a weight of 101.13 kilos (222.95 lbs)
- Saola with a weight of 97.84 kilos (215.7 lbs)
- Subantarctic fur seal with a weight of 92.21 kilos (203.29 lbs)
- Topi with a weight of 127.19 kilos (280.41 lbs)
- Ribbon seal with a weight of 90 kilos (198.42 lbs)
- Rough-toothed dolphin with a weight of 130 kilos (286.6 lbs)
- Schomburgk’s deer with a weight of 106 kilos (233.69 lbs)
- Juan Fernández fur seal with a weight of 95 kilos (209.44 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Reindeer
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Reindeer:
- Kouprey with a size of 2.18 meter (7′ 2″)
- White rhinoceros with a size of 2.59 meter (8′ 6″)
- Onager with a size of 2.25 meter (7′ 5″)
- Atlantic spotted dolphin with a size of 2.13 meter (7′ 0″)
- Blue wildebeest with a size of 2.01 meter (6′ 8″)
- Dugong with a size of 2.55 meter (8′ 5″)
- Asian elephant with a size of 1.92 meter (6′ 4″)
- Rough-toothed dolphin with a size of 2.44 meter (8′ 1″)
- Lion with a size of 1.84 meter (6′ 1″)
- Water buffalo with a size of 2.65 meter (8′ 9″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Reindeer
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (2) as a Reindeer:
- Mountain degu
- American black bear
- Jaguarundi
- Silvery greater galago
- Desert bandicoot
- Kodkod
- Lundomys
- Angoni vlei rat
- Balkan snow vole
- Fennec fox
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Reindeer
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Reindeer:
- Naemorhedus sumatraensis with an average maximal age of 21 years
- Madagascan fruit bat with an average maximal age of 20 years
- Roan antelope with an average maximal age of 20 years
- Cape porcupine with an average maximal age of 20 years
- Thorold’s deer with an average maximal age of 18 years
- Silvery marmoset with an average maximal age of 16.75 years
- White-nosed coati with an average maximal age of 17.67 years
- Dama gazelle with an average maximal age of 17.25 years
- Bighorn sheep with an average maximal age of 24 years
- Fringed myotis with an average maximal age of 18.25 years