Reindeers | #SciSparksAdvent

For obvious reasons - reindeers are mostly known for their link to Santa Claus and make the ideal sleigh pullers. Aside from Christmas, they're more usually seen during their mammoth Arctic migration -  during this, North American herds may travel for more than 5,000km.
Reindeers are also the only kind of deer where both males and females sport antlers, although they still can reach epic proportions in male reindeers.


Throughout the year, Reindeer mostly eat grass but they also take a fancy to virtually any other plant. In the winter - they often eat 'Reindeer lichen', moss and fungi. They are also very sociable creatures, living in groups of 10-100 groups.


As far as breeding is concerned, they mate in October and have a pregnancy of 230 days and give birth in May or June. When they do so, they only give birth to one baby who becomes fully mature at 2 years old. In the wild, they live to between 12 and 15 years old, although some live until they're 20.

Like many animals, they're hunted and have been hunted since the stone age. In northern regions in particular, they eat the meat and use the fur, skin, antlers and bones for various products. The reindeer was first domesticated around 3,000 years ago in Siberia and Scandinavia. Since then, they've been used for transport and pulling sleds. Because they can live in very cold climates - this makes them the ideal animals for the job.  

How much does Santa's Sleigh weigh? | #SciSparksAdvent

7 days to go!

If we're trying to work out how much his sleigh actually weighs, you need to make a lot of assumptions. Lets say that every child on Earth receives Buzz Lightyears - these have a boxed weight of 1.2kg - in total that's 840,000 tonnes of toys. These require a staggering 5.6 million reindeer to pull. Each reindeer weighs around 600lb - so the whole procession has a mass of 2,363,310.33 tonnes - Santa needs a few more than 7 reindeer!

Why Rudolph really does have a red nose...

Happy Christmas!! 

It's no wonder Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer is the most famous member of Santa's reindeers - on top of being a skilled flyer, as his name suggests, his nose glows bright red. This unusual variation on the normal reindeer is said to have all kinds of benefits, the most important of which being to guide Santa's sleigh. So, even if the weather is bad, Santa is cleared for flight, thanks to the brightness of Rudolph's nose.

Scientists at Lund University in Sweden have been using thermal imaging cameras to study the physiology (the workings) of animals, they have found that Rudolph's red nose may have actually been based on fact. They discovered that animals noses glow bright orange when viewed with an infrared light, which is sensitive to heat. Scientists say that this is because they have 25% more blood vessels compared to human noses. This helps to keep their noses warm and sensitive as they rummage through the snow for food beneath. Extra blood flow to their noses and lips can cause a red flush that is visible with our own eyes, hence "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer"

This is a infrared image of a Reindeer.