CHRISTMAS CHARACTERS
A look a some familiar faces on Christmas Day
REINDEER
A few reindeer facts from the San Diego Zoo:
Reindeer are also known as caribou (Rangifer tarandus). They are large members of the deer family, and they live in herds of up to a few hundred. In the spring, they sometimes form giant herds of many thousands. (The largest known herd numbers between 400,000 and a million reindeer.)
They don’t live at the North Pole. The North Pole is in the middle of the usually ice-covered Arctic Ocean, which makes it hard for terrestrial animals to reach. Reindeer live in the northern stretches of Europe, Asia and North America. The largest herds are in Russia.
Some have red noses. One group of scientists determined that some reindeer noses have a red tinge because of the “presence of a highly dense and rich nasal microcirculation” — in other words, a lot of blood vessels packed into a tight space. Reindeer are the only deer where both males and females grow antlers. But adult males shed their racks around Christmastime.
Reindeer have color-changing eyes. In summer their eyes are gold and in winter their eyes turn blue. This increases the scatter of reflected light and helps them see better.
They are the only mammals that can see ultraviolet light, which helps them pick out objects in the dim Arctic winter. Reindeer can float. One of their two coat layers is made up of hollow hairs that trap air, holding in body heat and giving them some buoyancy.
Some subspecies of reindeer’s knees make an audible click when they walk, perhaps so the animals can hear each other in blizzard conditions.
In North America, some reindeer undertake a massive migration of more than 3,000 miles in a year — the longest migration of any land mammal.