Let's explore this, shall we?
So you're out buying Christmas decorations, Christmas wrapping paper, or other festive Christmas things. This is typically what you will find when you are looking at holiday items that have 'reindeer' depicted on them:
Everything about these creatures, minus the holiday decor, is all wrong... The species is wrong in and of itself. These are typical depictions of what white-tail deer and American elk look like, like this:
...and this is what a true, real life reindeer looks like:
Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), also known as the caribou in North America, area species of deer native to Arctic and Subarctic regions. They are found in Norway, Iceland, Lapland, Canada, Alaska, and a few other places. Reindeer vary considerably in colors from deep brown, nearly black, to all shades of gray, white, and even spotted/patched, known as piebald. They also vary size depending on where they live, some are low-slung with very thick coats while others are lithe and lanky with very short smooth coats. Both sexes grow antlers, though they are typically larger in males. The calves are solid colored from birth, they do not have the characteristic 'fawn spots' that other deer species have. Males shed their antlers in late November while females keep them and shed them in May/June. (So, theoretically, all of Santa's reindeer had to be female... or, Christmas did not happen in Winter.)
So, lets get this straight...
Reindeer are -not- Elk
Reindeer are -not- White-Tailed Deer
Reindeer are -not- Red Stags
Reindeer are -not- Moose
Reindeer are -not- Fallow Deer
Reindeer -are- Caribou
...Reindeer = Caribou [Winner] > anything else [Loser].
Now every time you go looking for Christmas themed things are the store and you see the 'reindeer', you can point laugh, and share in the snarkiness that 1 out of 100 people don't even know that reindeer are a real life animals and that they look nothing like what Christmas items depict them to be, but are in fact caribou. They are one and the same animal. Feel free to laugh. Really. Even they think it's funny.
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| (Female racing reindeer in Lapland.) |
3 comments:
Tee Hee Hee. I didn't even think about the caribou. But I know about them, isn't there a Santa back in Utah that has a herd of them? I can't remember, but I remember that they are the true reindeer. Love your rants they are great.
Thank you Alyssa! There is a 'Santa' that has a few real tundra reindeer here in Utah. They are actually pretty small, about 13 hands tall, or 52 inches at the shoulder. But they certainly are cute. I'm glad someone actually is reading. lol. The next blog is going to be reindeer related as well. So you'll be delighted for that too. The coming rant was inevitable, if you know me. Haha.
Oh yeah, I was thinking Donder was going to be the first one. I asked Dom tonight if he was going to be my "Domder" LOL Now I just need to dress him like a reindeer and post that, I thought it was funny and cute. :)
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