Name:

Kapik

Meaning:

Inuit for "Coffee"

Nickname:

Kappy

Age:

Calf/Young Adult

Herd:

The Herd from the North

Color:

Strong black markings on upper jaw going up the muzzle, black seperates at the forhead to engulf the top of eyes, leaving a white star on the forhead and a white streak under each eye. The black re-connects at the top of the skull, goes over the ears and down the back. Black stops at center of the back, seperates, and goes about 1/4 of the way down the croup before ending abruptly. Black is outlined with reddish chestnut that goes along the black and extends over the croup. Reddish Chestnut is outlined by a very thin streak of light tan. Chocolate brown covers jowls, half of neck, sides of belly, rump and back legs, stopping halfway down the cannon bone. Lower jaw, neck fluff, and underbelly is silvery-white; silver-tipped ears. Belly has a black stripe lining the white underbelly. Top of tail has reddish chestnut streak underlined with light tan streak, under that is the main chocolate brown pelt. Under-tail is white with black lining.

Front legs are black from pastern to just over the knees. Knees topped with ring of reddish chestnut, and a ring of light tan tops reddish chestnut rings. Back legs are black from pastern to just over the fetlock joint. Black is capped with reddish chestnut ring and topped with light tan ring.

Small, silver antlers will grow larger as she gets older.

Breed/Species:

Caribou

Sire:

Great White Caribou named "Ataneq" (Inuit for KING)

Dam:

OPEN

Mate:

None yet

Crushes:

Has a crush on both Tupilek and Taner

Offspring:

None Yet

Siblings:

OPEN

Friends:

Bambi, Faline (Disney)

Taggarik, Tupilek (Feathervenom)

Taner and Tuktu (saske)

OPEN

Personality:

Very optimistic, happy and bright. Extremely curious and a great problem-solver. Has her father's stubborness and does NOT like being told what to do, where to go or how to do something (she IS a princess after all). She talks a lot. She's also quite bold when it comes to boys and she's not shy about letting them know how cute she thinks they are. She's very straight-forward and will let someone know right to their face if she doesn't like them. She was taught by her father that a good leader loves all the herd members equally and doesn't treat any members badly. She speaks out against injustice, which can sometimes get her into lots of trouble.

Likes:

Lichens, meeting new friends, other caribou, antlers, snow, flowers.

Dislikes:

Ice, rain, dogs, humans, planes and she especially hates to see someone get bullied.

Voice:

As a calf: Nancy Cartright

(Voice of Bart Simpson---The Simpsons, Voice of Chuckie Finster--All Grown Up!)

As an adult: Anne Hathaway

(Voice of Red--- Hoodwinked, Ella Enchanted, The Princess Diaries I and II)

Bio:

The reindeer of Norway and Sweden were showered with radioactive rain for days after the Chernobyl accident. When Norwegian inspectors checked the reindeer in the fields, they were found to be too radioactive for human consumption. The herd, several thousand strong, was destined for doom; they were all to be killed and their bodies burned. But a few underhanded illegal animal traders wanted to cash in on the unwanted radioactive reindeer. So they selected a few hundred animals and shipped them to Canada. Among the hundreds of reindeer was a pregnent cow named Sakari. She was white with lovely chestnut spots. This group of reindeer were being sent to Canada for pets, pelt and meat (the traders didn't bother to inform the buyers that the reindeer were radioactive).

But the plane never made it to the Inuit village. It went down in the mountains due to a terrible winter storm. Only a small handful of the original herd survived the crash. One of the survivers was Sakari. She escaped the wreckage and had her calf just a few feet away from the downed plane. She gave birth to an incredibly handsome pure-white bull calf. She named him Ataneq.

Ataneq grew to be a magnificent white bull. Because he was born in the wild, he was not a reindeer, but a caribou.

He was very respected by the native caribou and soon joined a herd. He fought every rutting season for breeding rights to only the best cows.

Among his many offspring, he had a lovely daughter with strong black markings. He was exceptionally proud of her. Her only problem was, she was very curious, and despite his warnings for her to not go near humans, she disobeyed and wandered onto a human settlement. The particular settlement was populated by both Inuit and white man. Therefore, there was a bit of a language barrier. When the little calf was captured, she was placed in a pen by herself. There were two other pens with reindeer in them. One pen was destined to be sold as pets, and the other was destined to be slaughtered for food.

A white man who worked for the Inuits asked the boss, an Inuit Indian, where he should put the new caribou calf. The Inuit thought the man was asking him if he wanted anything to drink. He responded 'kapik', which means 'coffee'. The white man thought the Inuit had given the calf a name, and figured she was meant to be a pet. She was placed in the pen with the other reindeer who were destined to be pets. Little did she know, that language barrier is what saved her life and gave her a name.

Kapik was shipped away from her homeland down to the US. She lived as a pet for a very short while, and she did NOT like it one bit. She is a CARIBOU, not a REINDEER. So she escaped back into the wild. The territory was very unfamiliar to her, as was the plant and animal life. Even the weather was new; much warmer then what she was used to! As time went on, she became friendlier with the local deer, and even started playing with them. She enjoyed the company of 2 in particular, who introduced themselves as Bambi and Faline.

One day when she was grazing, she heard a rattling sound not too far away. She cautiously peeked through the bushes and was stunned to see a young caribou calf standing on a deadly timber rattle snake. Kapik knew if the calf moved, she'd be history. So she charged out with a loud bleat, distracting the snake long enough to knock the other calf to the ground and out of harms way. Kapik then proceeded to stomp on the snake until it was dead. Afterwards, she asked the frightened calf if she was okay. The calf, still shaken, recomposed herself and nodded. From the way the little female stood, Kapik could tell immediately that she was the calf of the herd leaders. Being a princess herself, Kapik could see that this other calf was also a born leader. The young one introduced herself as Celeste. But before anything else could be said, the calf's mother, a frightful looking cow named Taifa, appeared. She had watched the whole scene. She gave Kapik a brief thank you before sending her off.

But Kapik knew she deserved more then a brief thank-you, so she asked the leader if she could join. Taifa refused at first, but suddenly, her mate Caius appeared. Evidentally, he'd watched the scene as well, and was very appreciative of Kapik for saving his daughter. Kapik knew she could appeal to him, so she asked him if she could join. Caius agreed only if Taifa said it was okay. Reluctantly, Taifa agreed and Kapik joined the Herd from the North.

She eventually made friends with the other calves, Tuktu, Taggarik and Tupilek, and even made friends with Celeste's older brother, Taner, on whom she eventually developed a crush.

She has only trace amounts of radioactivity in her, but no one knows it.

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Reindeer: Domestic
Caribou: Wild

Yup, there's a difference!

Head and bodyshot done by me with sharpies and colored pencils.

My first attempt at drawing a reindeer/caribou.