The woodland caribou can be found in Alaska and all of the forested areas of Canada from the Rocky Mountains to Newfoundland north of the settled areas of the Prairie Provinces, Ontario, Quebec, Labrador and the Maritime Provinces. They are also found in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. This caribou is really the same species as the reindeer of northern Europe. The woodland caribou is a large member of the deer family, 137 to 210 cm long and 90 to 105 cm tall at the shoulders. At 124 to 270 kg, Males are much larger than the females which weigh 67.5 to 135 kg. The caribou is the only member of the deer family in which both male and female have antlers. The males have much larger antlers, up to 153 cm across. Female antlers are only 23 to 50 cm across and rather spindly. The male's antlers also have a flat, blade-like part on the front part just over the head. The barren ground caribou of the Alaska and Canadian tundra are now placed in the same species by experts. The barren ground caribou form larger herds and become lighter in colour the further north they live. In the high Arctic, they are white. The barren lands of Canada's Arctic regions is a vast area covering thousands of square miles from the boreal forest in the south all the way up to the Arctic Ocean. The land is rolling flat treeless tundra covered with moss and lichen. This is the last great wilderness frontier of North America and this is home to the barren ground caribou,the source of life for the Arctic. More than a million strong the Canadian Barrenground Caribou wander a vast area from near Bathurst in the north to the boreal forest (see map) wintering grounds in the south.The hunting season opens August 15 when the small scattered groups of mature bulls start to herd up. The August bulls are in velvet which is mostly gone by the beginning of September. Mountain caribou are the same subspecies as the woodland caribou, which were once found throughout boreal Canada. However mountain caribou make different use of their habitat, and they are recognized as an ecotype unique to the snowy mountains of the interior wet belt of south-eastern British Columbia. Census results from 2002 show serious declines among the herds of mountain caribou across the southern portion of their range. Mountain caribou are recognized by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife as part of the threatened “Southern Mountain population” of Woodland Caribou. Threatened populations are considered likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed.