Reindeer Rock!

Woodland caribou in the Southern Selkirk Mountains of Idaho. Photo by Steve Forrest. Taken on October 22, 2007

Ho, ho, ho!  It's time to learn about Santa's big helpers: reindeer!  There are so many cool things to learn about these Christmas heroes.  

First of all, let's get one thing straight.  Reindeer are real.  They are also known as caribou.  They are large members of the deer family, and live in herds of up to a few hundred.  In the spring, they sometimes form giant herds of many thousands!

As land mammals, they don't actually live at the North Pole; the North Pole is in the middle of the ice-covered Arctic Ocean.  Instead, they live in the arctic and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America.  The largest herds of reindeer live in Russia.

Unfortunately, reindeer can't really fly.  They are mammals, and the only mammals that fly are bats.  They can float though!  One of their two coat layers is made up of hollow hairs that trap air.  These hairs hold in body heat and give them some buoyancy.

There are actually some reindeer that have red noses!  Some scientists think the red hue is caused by a lot of blood vessels packed into a tight space to help regulate their body temperature in cold climates.  Other scientists think the red-nosed reindeer might be suffering from a parasitic infection.

And finally, reindeer have really cool eyes.  They change color!  In the summer,  their eyes are gold.  In the winter, their eyes turn blue, which increases the scatter of reflected light and helps them to see better in the near constant darkness.  They are also the only mammals that can see ultraviolet light, which helps them to see objects in the dark arctic winter.

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