caribou: [17] Caribou is the name of a close North American relative of the reindeer, and it refers literally to the way in which the animal scratches at the snow with its hooves to find the grass, moss, etc that it eats. It comes from Mi’kmaq galipu (Mi’kmaq is an Algonquian language of eastern Canada), meaning ‘snowshoveller’, which in Canadian French became caribou.
also cariboo, 1660s, from Canadian French caribou, from Micmac (Algonquian) kaleboo or a related Algonquian name, literally "pawer, scratcher," from its kicking snow aside to feed on moss and grass.