All of the other reindeer ...
Reindeer may not be native to San Antonio, but at least nine of them will swoop into town Christmas Eve when Santa Claus makes his annual rounds around the world.
There’s no denying the magical powers of these furry sleigh-pullers. After all, they fly across time zones with a shiny red-nosed Rudolph to guide them. But closer to earth, these amazing animals have their share of lessfamous relatives.
Consider Crystal and Holly. They may not jet St. Nick around the globe, but they still spread Christmas cheer in and around the Alamo City via Zoomagination, a nonprofit in Atascosa that houses and rehabilitates exotic animals.
Every holiday season, Zoomagination showcases one or more of its four
We really should call them caribou. Technically, the term “reindeer” applies only to those animals in Europe. In North America, they’re called caribou. The term “caribou” stems from the French for “snow shoveler,” which refers to how the deer paws through the snow for food.
In the United States, we tend to go with “reindeer” because that’s also the term for domesticated populations of the animal, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Besides, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Caribou” doesn’t have the same alliterative flair.
A way-up-north kind of deer.
Santa didn’t need to go far to recruit his sleigh crew. The reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) is a deer species native to circumpolar regions — basically the Arctic tundra of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Russia and Scandinavia.
For the most part, reindeer are not native to the continental United States. However, Fish & Wildlife does cite southern mountain caribou do occasionally occur in extreme northeast Washington and northern Idaho.
They look lighter up north.
Reindeer coats vary by region and population size. The smaller reindeer populations in colder northern climes tend to sport white fur, while the larger southern populations skew darker. Reindeer have a woolly overcoat and a long-haired undercoat.
Reindeer grow to around 6 feet long and 4 feet tall from hoof to shoulder, with females slightly smaller than males. Reindeer live up to 18 years in the wild.
Both sexes grow antlers. And they’re huge. Reindeer are the only deer in which both males and females grow antlers.
Those antlers are the largest of any deer relative to body size. For perspective, a bull reindeer can grow antlers as large as 3 feet wide and 50 inches long.
Male reindeer grow their antlers in spring, while females tend to grow theirs in early summer. Males lose their antlers in the fall or winter after mating season, while females lose theirs when they give birth to their young.
“It only takes 70 days for their antlers to grow,” Trejo said.
Reindeer may be the first domesticated animals. Some scientists believe reindeer were first domesticated around 2,000 to 5,000 years ago. Trejo noted the Inuit and other indigenous peoples of the Arctic long have relied on reindeer as pack aniresident reindeer at schools, corporate shindigs and other events, entertaining and educating the public about the real magic behind these famous Christmas creatures.
On a recent chilly morning Crystal and Holly were at Northwest Hills United Methodist Church, where dozens of wide-eyed, waist-high preschoolers marveled at the creatures in the church parking lot.
“I always tell kids there’s a reason why Santa chose reindeer,” said Zoomagination co-director Robert Trejo. “Because they’re fast and they’re very adaptable to different climates. They can adapt to cold and freezing and warmth. They can swim. And they’re some of the only animals that can see in ultraviolet light.”
So even the “normal” reindeer are pretty special. Here’s a look at how.
mals, though some also hunt reindeer for their fur and meat.
They can’t fly, but they sure can run. Santa’s special herd aside, reindeer tend to stick to the ground for their travels. They can run as fast as 50 miles per hour and also are good swimmers.
Reindeer really do go clickclick-click. The reindeer’s famous rooftop noise comes from a tendon on the back of their legs that snaps naturally, Trejo said. “It almost sounds like someone who pops chewing gum.”
They’re vegetarians with special stomachs. Reindeer are herbivores that eat mostly lichens in winter and ferns, grass, herbs and leaves in summer.
The guys butt heads to impress the ladies. Bull reindeer
lock antlers in a shoving match to determine which will mate with females. A dominant bull reindeer may mate with as many as 20 females, usually between late September and early November. Talk about your reindeer games.
Naturally, baby reindeer are adorable.
Females give birth to their calves in May or June, usually in an isolated area away from predators.
Newborns tend to weigh around 13 pounds and walk on their own about an hour after birth. They sprout their first antlers by their second birthday. Some have “red” noses. Rudolph’s signature schnoz isn’t so special when you consider some reindeer have “red” noses, thanks to a dense network of
blood vessels near the skin.
Santa’s original reindeer didn’t include Rudolph. The 1823 poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” better known as “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore, first named Santa’s eight reindeer as Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Comet, Cupid, Vixen, Dunder (now Donder) and Blixem (now Blitzen). Rudolph didn’t come along until more than a century later in a separate work.
Rudolph the retailer-published reindeer. Robert L. May’s booklet “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” introduced the character in 1939. The department store Montgomery Ward published the tale, which May wrote while working for the retailer in Chicago as an in-house advertising copywriter.
With the nation locked in the Great Depression, May’s boss asked him to come up with a merry Christmas character for the retailer’s holiday promotion. May went with the story of a special reindeer, inspired by his young daughter Barbara’s love for the animal at the Chicago zoo.
The song of Rudolph is in the family, too. May’s brother-inlaw Johnny Marks wrote the famous “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” song in 1948 as a musical adaptation of May’s tale. Country crooner Gene Autry recorded it, and it became a hit in 1949.
Other famous reindeer. Santa’s starting nine may steal the show, but there are other famous reindeer. Perhaps the best-known is Sven, the lovable reindeer from Disney’s “Frozen” franchise.