What did we know of reindeer before Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem A Visit From St. Nicholas? Not too darn much. They certainly became stars of the animal world once the spotlight was turned on and they were outed as the ‘horsepower’ for Santa’s sleigh. Even more so in 1939 after a booklet explaining the details surrounding Rudolph being drafted to the squad, was published. (Clearly NOT “the most famous reindeer of all” if it took an additional 100 years to write a story about him!)
Early Santa lore has it that Claus and his sleigh were pulled around on his route by a single reindeer. Clement Clarke Moore was able to establish that it took 8 reindeer (pre-Rudolph) to pull the sled and that’s the legend that stuck.
Reindeer (their scientific name is Rangifer tarandus) are obviously members of the deer family. In Europe they’re called reindeer but here in North America, if the animal is still living in the wild, it is referred to as a caribou. Only the domesticated ones are referred to as reindeer. (If they are domesticated, I think I want one!)
Reindeer domestication has been a thing in the circumpolar regions since the Bronze Age. They were, and still are, highly prized for their meat, their hides, their antlers, for use as draught animals (following Santa’s example of pulling sleds—usually on the frozen tundra rather than in the air), and there are still brave souls who actually milk reindeer.
As far as reindeer/caribou go, both the males and females grow antlers, unlike in the wider deer world where just the males grow a set. So to speak. Reindeer antlers fall off every year, which must be wildly frustrating. The males begin to grow their new pair in February, and the females start theirs in May. The reason we’re so sure that Santa’s team of reindeer are made up of females is because male reindeer lose their antlers in the Autumn whereas female reindeer hold onto theirs throughout the winter until their calves are born in the early spring. You’ve all seen the depictions of the group at the front of the sleigh, make your own decisions.
Scientists tell us that reindeer don’t have an internal clock (a circadian rhythm), therefore throughout the endlessly sunny days of summer in the North, or during the dark weeks of winter, they only eat and sleep when their bodies are lacking, rather than operate on an impossible cycle dictated by the Arctic sun. That must very helpful during their Christmas Eve journey around the world—they just refresh on carrots when it is necessary to top up their energy supply.
Carrots aren’t part of a reindeer’s usual diet, although they are probably seen as a Christmas treat (much like fudge, in human terms). The average reindeer eats a diet of moss, grasses, and young shoots during the summer and then switches over to lichen (not available in your local produce section) and fungi during the winter. They can smell the lichen UNDER THE SNOW and use their large flattish hooves and their muzzles to dig it out. In fact, the word caribou is derived from a Mi’kmaq word that translates into ‘snow shoveler’. Thank goodness they have nasal superpowers and that lichen is abundant in the North because it takes between 9 and 18 pounds of food each day to fill up the average reindeer. (How do they have time to do anything else?) To that end, they are known to travel up to 1000 miles south during their winter migration as they search for the most accessible and readily available feeding grounds.
I’m told that reindeer are very good swimmers and that they swim at a rate of 4 miles an hour, or 6 when they have to. They trot along on land at a speed of 25 mph but can double that if they are being pursued. We all can. It is said that a baby reindeer of only 1 day old can already outrun an Olympic sprinter, but I can’t imagine how they would have tested that theory. Let me know if you are familiar with any Olympians who have personally tried this little stunt.
The average reindeer stands between 33 and 59 inches high at their shoulders and weigh between 180 and 400 pounds according to their sex. Those of you with bad knees will be cheered to know that reindeer also have noisy knees that click quite audibly due to their tendons slipping over bones in their feet as they walk. Gosh! The louder the noise, the bigger the reindeer, so scientists assume that this noise is one of the ways that reindeer can identify who is coming towards them, and that they also use the sound as a way to stay in touch with the rest of the herd during those long dark days of winter.
Their noses are covered in soft hair to ensure they don’t all end up with frostbitten faces as they dig for lichen. The cold Arctic air that they breathe in through their noses is warmed to body temperature by their special interior nasal passages before it is sucked into their lungs. That seems handy!
Still another fascinating thing about reindeer is that their eyes change colour depending on the season. What? During the summer, the light-reflecting layer in their eyes, is a golden colour, but during the winter that layer turns to a deep blue. Oooo, pretty! Somehow that helps them to see better during those long days of darkness. And, is what makes them so invaluable during their Christmas Eve journey, no doubt.
While I admire all of the amazing qualities that the quiet-living reindeer possess, on Christmas Eve under the cover of a dark sky, it will be their magical 1-night-per-year flying ability that I will be straining to spot as that celebrated team makes their western migration around the entire world, conveying Santa Claus and his abundant sleigh of gifts to the homes of the extremely well behaved.
Awesome!
