A caribou is a large deer of the cold north of North America. It is the same kind of animal Europeans call a reindeer; the difference is mostly the name and the place. Caribou live in herds, and in winter they use their hooves and noses to push snow aside and reach the plants underneath. The word came into English from Canadian French, and before that from Mi'kmaq, a First Nations language of eastern Canada. In Mi'kmaq the name is tied to shovelling snow — which is rather a good picture of the animal. You will see the word in writing about Canada, Alaska, and the Arctic, not in British farm talk.