Seeing what you want to see

Cindy has been disappointed that we didn't shoot any pictures of the moose in Alaska.
So she has had her eye out for one ever since.

Imagine our pleasure when we were discussing it and suddenly see this in the horizon!
It was at the Yukon-BC border.

Their stance suggested these were our moose!
And so did their size.

Alas, wrong type of antlers!
And a mane too!

As they stood by the the trees,
we could certainly see why they called the females Cows!
Don't you agree, that's what they look like?

They were caribou!
Or reindeer if you wish. The difference is that reindeer were brought to Alaska for the natives to herd and use their meat and fur as a cash crop.
Caribou are the wild ones.
I do not know if you can hunt a caribou with or without a license.
But you can buy a reindeer fur off the shelf. And I must tell you, it is just right to cover yourself with as you read a book...and it'll keep you warm.

Concerning their "horns", they are not horn; they're antlers. Antlers fall off every year. Horns are permanent (like in cattle). Both male and female reindeer and caribou get antlers (actually 90-95% of females get antler, not all). The females get them later in the spring than the males. They are also smaller in size than the male's. They are the only deer that has antlers on the females.

And as you can see, these guys and galls are pretty big, not unusual to reach 500 pounds. And this family sure look like female cattle, don't you think? That's why they call them cows.

PS There are no reindeer in Kodiak. Just plain deer that were imported. No native elk or moose either live in Kodiak. So we must travel to see them somewhere else in AK or the Yukon of Canada. And that is what we are doing!