This time of year one animal species gets all of the attention--that hardy, sled-pulling athlete of the North, the reindeer. To find out more about these cold-loving creatures, and their wild counterparts, the caribou, we turned to Justina Ray, senior scientist and executive director of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Canada. She filled us in on the reindeer's unique adaptations to life in the cold and shared some alarming news about the species' future in the Great White North (a.k.a. Canada).

Photo by Steve Forrest