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Caribou have large, concave hooves that are ideal for traveling over snow or soft ground, and for digging in search of snow-covered lichens. The hooves are sharply edged for ice travel and are wide to serve as paddles when swimming. Caribou prefer mostly barren land during the summer months, moving to areas of mixed forests during the colder months. Caribou are herbivores. Their main food source is lichens, which gives caribou an advantage in the more harsh northern areas of its range where vegetation is scarce. The common "caribou moss" is actually a type of lichen (Cladonia rangiferina), which is a major food for caribou. Caribou also eat vegetation such as grasses, sedges, birch and willow leaves, and mosses.