CARIBOU

It's Flower Friday....but there's no flowers to be seen around here these days. So quadrupeds it is!
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This is Rangifer tarandus, known as Caribou in the wild and Reindeer if domesticated. There are 8 known subspecies, depending on location, but biologically, they are considered to be the same species as they can interbreed and produce fertile offspring (the biological definition of a species).
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This cow lives at the zoo in Milwaukee along with several other cows and a beautiful bull.  They are native to North America (Canada and Alaska) and most northern climes above the Equator.
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Being an herbivore, it eats plants and plant relatives.  Where this quadruped lives plants are not available all year so they are reduced to grazing on lichens at certain times, which are plentiful on rocks, and explains why lichen are sometimes called "reindeer moss".....although not a true moss at all.
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Caribou can be aggressive during mating season but, for the most part, they behave civilly. This one is polishing her antlers on some dead wood. It's the only true "deer" species where both cows and bulls have antlers.  For those who do not know, the difference between horns and antlers is that antlers are shed and regrown each year.....horns are not; they are permanent.
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Best viewed in Large.