Worldwide, more people think about reindeer today than on any other day of the year! And here’s the scoop.

Rangifer tarandus saintnicolas magicalus

According to the Alaska Department on Fish and Game, Santa’s reindeer (R.t. saintnicolas magicalus) look very similar to common reindeer or caribou, but have many characteristics that distinguish them from the seven other common subspecies.

Santa’s reindeer possess the unique and remarkable ability to fly. A strenuous conditioning program developed by Mr. and Mrs. Claus enables them to travel great distances in a short time, provided they receive frequent carrot snacks.

My personal observation of reindeer in Norway has led me to conclude that Santa’s reindeer also have a much greater affinity for bells compared to common reindeer.

In most subspecies of reindeer/caribou, the adult bulls shed their antlers in late October. So, given the date of Christmas, all the males would have dropped their antlers. Female reindeer use their antlers to brush away snow to find food in the winter, and pregnant females usually retain their antlers until calves are born in late May.

In all reported sightings, the antlers of Santa’s reindeer appear extremely velvety and robust in late December. This has fired a debate over whether Santa’s reindeer are all female. Because there are no data on when or if Santa’s reindeer shed their antlers, some claim that males with antlers in winter is just another unique difference between Santa’s reindeer and regular reindeer.

The names of Dasher, Dancer, and the rest of Santa’s antlered reindeer are gender-neutral, also suggesting to me that they all could be female.

Rudolph’s Biology

In any case, Rudolf is a boy. Small bulls and non-pregnant cows shed antlers in April, and reliable sources claim that Rudolph was very young when he first started flying with Santa Claus.

When reindeer need to cool down, they can increase blood flow to their extremities, including their noses. Because the hair on their noses is finer and lighter in color than in other areas, their noses can appear red, just like a human with flushed cheeks. Though the bright glowing seems to be artistic license, Rudolph’s red nose was likely just a result of his healthy circulatory system!

There is a story abroad that Blitzen and Rudolph are father and son, who have a loving relationship. During Rudolph’s childhood, Blitzen worried about what others would think of his son’s red nose and became angry when people found out and ridiculed him. Perhaps that was Rudolph’s mother?

Sometimes authors just don’t do enough research!

Where They All Came From

Santa’s reindeer were first mentioned in 1821 when New York printer William Gilley published a 16-page booklet titled A New Year’s Present to the Little Ones from Five to Twelve, Part III by an anonymous author:

Old Santeclaus with much delight
His reindeer drives this frosty night.
O’er chimneytops, and tracks of snow,
To bring his yearly gifts to you.

Two years later, in 1823, the Troy Sentinel published the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, commonly known as ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. The poem featured eight flying reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh and, for the first time, identified each team member by name.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer began guiding Santa’s sleigh in 1939, when Robert L. May wrote the story of “the most famous reindeer of all” as a Christmas coloring book for his employer, the department store Montgomery Ward. The company gave away the coloring books as holiday gifts to children to entice their parents to visit and shop at the store. Before settling on Rudolph, May considered the names Rollo and Reginald!

In 1948, May’s brother-in-law Johnny Marks made the story into a song. It was featured in a cartoon shown in movie theaters, but wasn’t released as a stand-alone recording until 1949 when “The Singing Cowboy” Gene Autry recorded the song and its popularity soared. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is one of the biggest-selling Christmas songs of all time.

Leaving Fantasy Behind

Apart from Santa’s workshop, reindeer are a real thing. Humans domesticated reindeer in Eurasia over 2000 years ago. Today, depending on where you are, reindeer is a blanket name that includes both the domesticated and wild populations.

The scientific name for reindeer and caribou is Rangifer tarandus. The term Rangifer likely comes from the Old French word rangier for reindeer and the Latin word ferus, which translates to ‘wild’ or ‘untamed’.

Caribou live in the Arctic tundra and the boreal forests of Greenland, Scandinavia, Russia, Alaska, and Canada. There are two types of caribou (reindeer)—tundra caribou and forest and woodland caribou.

Reindeer vs. Caribou

All caribou and reindeer throughout the world are considered to be the same species, and, excluding Santa’s reindeer (R.t. saintnicolas magicalus), there are 7 subspecies.

Migration

Though most people use the terms ‘caribou’ and ‘reindeer’ interchangeably to refer to the same species, migration is a key difference.

Tundra caribou are larger in numbers and migrate between tundras and forests areas every year. They migrate in massive herds that can reach up to 500,000 individuals. ‘Caribou’ describes members of the Rangifer tarandus species living in North America, who migrate these long distances. According to a study of the longest terrestrial migrations in the world published in Scientific Reports, reindeer and gray wolves were the only species that exceeded 621 miles (1,000 kilometers). With their remarkably long legs, North American reindeer can travel an average of 23 miles daily.

‘Reindeer’ describes wild Rangifer tarandus living in Europe and Asia or domesticated caribou in North America.

Wolves are the greatest natural predator of caribou. For thousands of years, they have followed migrating caribou herds, killing mostly the aged, injured, or weak animals.

Although the similarities between reindeer and caribou are numerous, the differences are enough that they are classified as two subspecies.

Domestication

Domestication is the other main difference between reindeer and caribou, and many of the distinguishing traits are thought to result from that domestication.

Both male and female reindeer and caribou grow antlers — a trait unique in the deer family — although female reindeer antlers grow larger than female caribou antlers.

Reindeer are shorter, stouter and more sedentary than their long-legged caribou cousins, and although reindeer may migrate within their grazing range, they do not migrate long distances between wintering grounds and calving areas as caribou do.

Caribou bulls are larger than reindeer bulls, but reindeer cows generally weigh the same as caribou cows.

Reindeer have thicker, denser fur than caribou, although both have hollow guard hairs that keep them warm.

The reindeer breeding season begins about two to four weeks earlier than caribou, which results in reindeer calves being born at the end of April, while caribou calves are born at the end of May.

The Value of Reindeer

The main product of reindeer herding is meat. However, skins, bones, and horns are important raw materials for making clothes and handicrafts.

Meat and organs such as tongue, kidneys, brain, heart and liver are an essential food source. In Alaska, and Canada reindeer/caribou are an important food source, particularly in native communities throughout the north.

Reindeer meat is eaten widely in Norway and Finland.

Tallow or fat is used in recipes such as Eskimo ice cream and was burned as a light source.

Hard antlers and bone are used to make utensils, tools, and decorative objects.

Bone marrow is extracted and used as food.

Back sinew is used to make thread.

Hides are used for clothing, mukluks, blankets, mittens, tents, boat coverings, sleeping bags, house coverings, and insulation.

Reindeer milk is some of the richest and most nutritious milk produced by any terrestrial mammal. It contains an impressive 22 percent butterfat and 10 percent protein. (Whole cow milk contains only three to four percent fat, and human milk contains three to five percent.) However, reindeer can only produce up to two cups daily. In Nordic countries, people use the milk of farmed reindeer to make butter and a kind of sweet cheese.

Antler velvet has been used in medicine since at least 100 BC, according to a silk scroll found in a Han tomb in China. Today, velvet is still used as a medicinal ingrediant in several countries, including China, Korea, and Indonesia.

Hair is edible! This practice has saved some groups from starvation.

Fun Facts About Reindeer

Antlers

Both male and female reindeer grow antlers, unique among the more than 45 species of deer where only the males have antlers. The males use their antlers primarily to battle for females whereas the females use theirs mainly to defend food sources. Males’ antlers grow up to about 50 inches long while females’ can reach up to 20 inches,

Compared to their body size, reindeer have the largest and heaviest antlers of all living deer species. A male’s antlers can be up to 51 inches long, and a female’s antlers can reach 20 inches.

Unlike horns which are never shed, antlers fall off and grow back larger each year. Male reindeer begin to grow antlers in February and female reindeer in May.

Both sexes finish growing their antlers at the same time but shed them at different times of the year. Typically, males drop their antlers in the late fall, leaving them without antlers until the following spring, while females keep their antlers through the winter until their calves are born in the spring.

Fur and Hair

Reindeer have thick, wooly undercoats, with a top layer of longer, tubular hairs. The hollow shafts allow the hairs to trap air, providing insulation to keep the animals warm in frigid environments. The hollowness of their coats is also what gives them their white color.

That hollow coat hairs (along with big feet) make reindeer excellent swimmers. They’re often seen crossing the Yukon River—the third longest in North America, a half mile wide in parts—mid-migration. They swim across these rough, wide rivers and can swim three times faster than the average human, up to 6 mph — which happens to be Michael Phelps’s top speed! According to the National Park Service, researchers have recorded calves just a few months old swimming between islands a mile and a half apart.

Reindeer hair covers their bodies from their noses to the bottom of their feet (hooves). The hairy hooves may look funny, but they give reindeer a good grip when walking on frozen ground, ice, mud, and snow.

Reindeer are the only deer species to have hair completely covering their nose. Their specialized nose hair helps to warm incoming cold air before it enters their lungs. Their good sense of smell helps reindeer find food hidden under snow, locate danger, and recognize direction. Reindeer mainly travel into the wind so they can pick up scents.

Behavior

Reindeer eat mosses, herbs, ferns, grasses, and the shoots and leaves of shrubs and trees, especially willow and birch. In winter, they make do with lichen (also called reindeer moss) and fungi, scraping the snow away with their hooves to get it. Lichen is exceedingly high in carbohydrates and contains a fair amount of vitamins and protein. An average adult reindeer eats 9 to 18 pounds of vegetation a day.

Reindeer travel, feed, and rest together throughout the day in herds of 10 to a few hundred. In spring, they may form super-herds of 50,000 to 500,000 animals. The herds generally follow food sources, traveling south up to 1,000 miles when food is hard to find in winter.

Reindeer are the only deer species humans have managed to domesticate widely.

Caribou and reindeer are important to their ecosystems. In the tundras and forests, they help regulate vegetation and cycle nutrients through the soil to encourage growth.

Baby Reindeer

In yet another departure from the rest of the deer family, reindeer aren’t called bucks, does, or fawns. Instead, like cattle, a male is a bull (or in some cases a stag), a female is a cow and a baby is a calf.

Females give birth to one calf each year. Calves can stand within minutes of being born. Within 90 minutes of birth, calves can run as fast as an Olympic sprinter. In a matter of hours, they can keep up with the herd. It isn’t abnormal for calves to run at speeds of up to 50 mph for 30-some miles a day during migration. That speed is only slightly slower than the pronghorn (top speed 55 mph), the second-fastest land animal in the world. This quick development helps the vulnerable young survive against predators like wolves, bears, and lynx.

Also an anomaly for the deer family, reindeer calves aren’t born with spots. According to Henderson State University, spots on a young deer are an adaptation for survival. Because other deer can’t run as fast as adults when they’re young, their spots help their mothers locate them if they’ve been outrun. When running from a predator, the spots break up the pattern of the rushing herd. However, reindeer calves can run as fast as their adult counterparts within hours, so they haven’t developed the adaptation.

Meat

Reindeer tastes like venison. It is popular in Scandinavian countries where it is served with sweet sauces most of the time. If you like venison, you will probably like reindeer. Both are available in many forms, some more gamy than others, and in both the back strap is the best cut.

Reindeer meat is very healthful. It has more vitamins and micro nutrients and less fat than pork or beef.

Reindeer meat is also an ethical choice for free grazing and a cleaner environment.

Reindeer meat is very popular throughout Europe, widely available in supermarkets and restaurants as steak, stew, ribs, jerky, sausage, soup, smoked, and fried.

Weird Deer

Caribou/reindeer hooves are large enough to distribute their weight, which helps them walk easily on snow and paddle through water. During winter, their footpads shrink and harden, the World Animal Foundation says, exposing the hoof rim so it can cut into ice and snow for traction. The hoof’s hollow underside also helps them dig through snow to reach lichens, their primary winter food source. In summer, the underside is spongy and soft to help them grip the earth.

Thanks to an intwined arrangement of arteries and veins in their legs, reindeer have a counter-current heat exchange. Like Arctic foxes and moose, this allows them to “recycle” their body heat rather getting cold feet standing in the snow!

Researchers at University College London discovered that reindeer are the only mammals that can see ultraviolet light. Their ability to see ultraviolet light helps the animals spot food and predators more clearly in the glaring light of the Arctic.

Reindeer in Danger

The involvement of young people in Norway and Sweden in raising and herding caribou is hindered by legislative acts, and the lack of pastures and economic opportunities hamper the growth of the industry.

Caribou are classified by the IUCN RedList as Vulnerable (VU). Prior to 2015, they were classified as Least Concern (LC). Caribou have experienced a population decline of 40% over the last three generations (21 to 27 years).

The numerous threats contributing to this decline include habit disturbance through human activity, hunting, predation, and climate change.

Bottom Line: There’s a lot more to reindeer than Christmas!