Rod Zamorski, age 10, of Vancouver, Wash., for his question:

HOW LARGE IS THE CARIBOU?

Caribou is the French Canadian name for the wild reindeer of North America. A male or bull caribou can weigh from 250 to 700 pounds and stand four to five feet tall. His length will measure from six to eight feet.

A female or cow caribou is a bit smaller than the male.

Both the male and the female caribou have broad antlers, with the males much larger than the females. The female caribou is the only American female deer that has antlers.

There are two main types of caribou: barren ground and woodland.

Barren ground caribou spend the summer in the Arctic tundra and the winter in the evergreen forests south of the tundra. They may be found from western Alaska to western Greenland.

In the western part of their range, the barren ground caribou live in large herds. Roaming caribou cover the land for days at a time. They do not overgraze their range because they keep moving from place to place.

In summer these animals eat mostly grass and leaves of willow, drawf birch and other shrubs. In winter, they live mostly on lichens.

Woodland caribou are slightly larger and darker than the barren ground caribou. They are found in forested regions from Newfoundland to the Northwest Territories and down through British Columbia, northern Idaho and northeastern Washington.

Some Northern Indians and Eskimos eat caribou meat and make soup from the animals marrow. They make clothing and tents from its hide. They use its bones for needles and knives, its tendons for threads and its horns for fish hooks, spears and spoons.

A cow will give birth to one calf in late spring.

There are about 2 million caribou in the early 1900s and only about 1 million today.

Both the caribou of North America and the reindeer of northern Europe and Asia are in the deer family, Cervidea. Both are classified as genus Rangifer, species R. tarandus.

The European and Asian relatives are smaller in size than caribou. They average about 300 pounds in weight and only stand about three and a half feet tall.

Both animals differ from other members of the deer family in that they have large, deeply cleft hoofs, hairy muzzles and antlers on both the males and females. The broad hoofs are useful in supporting them in deep snow and spongy tundra.

The reindeer has been tamed and has become one of mans most valuable possessions in the arctic regions. They provide the people of Lapland with the chief means of transportation in their cold barren country.

Reindeer have been trained to draw sledges over the snow at the rate of 12 to 14 miles per hour. The animals have endurance as well as swiftness and can travel with loads of up to 300 pounds for hours at a time.