Reindeer: Twelve Fascinating Facts

photo © 2007 m.prinke | more info (via: Wylio)

The Norwegian reindeer population is to large, so there are currently not enough food in the North. Still they are fascinating animals.

A post from blog.nwf.org has the whole story. Here is a part:

Reindeer are prominent in our holiday music and images.  They pull Santa’s sleigh, they have red noses, that have names and they fly.  But how much do you really know about this northernmost deer species?   Here are 12 fascinating facts you can use to impress your friends and family.

1. In North America reindeer are also called caribou.
2. Both the males and females grow antlers.
3. Their noses are specially designed to warm the air before it gets to their lungs.
4. Reindeer hooves expand in summer when the ground is soft and shrink in winter when the ground is hard.
5. Some subspecies have knees that make a clicking noise while walking so they can stay together in a blizzard.
6. Some North American caribou migrate over 3,000 miles in a year – more than any other mammals.
7. Though thought of as a tundra species, a form of caribou lived in southern Idaho until the 19^th Century (there are ongoing efforts to re-establish them in the State),
8. Northernmost species are much lighter in color than species at the southern end their range,
9. Reindeer have been herded for centuries by several Arctic and Subarctic people,
10. The name “reindeer” is of Norse origin (From old Norse word “hreinn” for deer) and has nothing to do the reins of a sled. The name “caribou” comes to us through the French, from the Mi’kmag “qalipu,” meaning “snow shoveler.”
11. Golden eagles are the leading predator on caribou calves in the late spring and fall.
12. Once the entire body of a reindeer was found in a Greenland shark (most likely a case of near shore scavenging versus a migrating land shark).