Christmas

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 when they walk so the animals can stay together in a blizzard.
6. Some North American caribou migrate over 3,000 miles in a year – more than any other land mammal.
7. Though thought of as a tundra species, a form of caribou lived in southern Idaho until the 19th 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 peoples.
10. The name “reindeer” is of Norse origin (from the 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.”