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CAN REINDEER FLY? Greetings from Santa's Friend! At one point or another nearly everyone wonders whether or not reindeer can fly. You deserve the straight scoop so I asked Santa. This was his answer. ----------------0------------------ That question brings to mind a song that was popular eighty to ninety years ago: "He flies through the air with the greatest of ease, the daring young man on the flying trapeze. His movements are graceful all the girls he does pleaseÉ" and so on. It has a nice lilt and I used to sing it on those long lonely trips. But back to your question; Flying to me is when you are not touching the ground. Do reindeer fly? To my way of thinking the answer is yes. A buck can soar over a car or jump an eight-foot fence from a standstill. He can easily broad jump 30 feet. In addition to these soaring leaps, reindeer are able to make slamming stops and turn on a dime. This ability is due to a difference in their anatomy. The long bones of the foreleg are not directly joined to their skeleton. Instead, the shoulder blades are fastened to the body muscles with a springy tissue, allowing them a kind of free-floating flexibility The daring young man doesn’t fly by flapping his arms and reindeer don’t flap their antlers. Can you imagine flapping antlers? That would be about as effective as trying to paddle a kayak with a tennis racquet. Speaking of antlers, I would like to take this opportunity to clear up a misunderstanding. Last year rumor had it that all of my reindeer were female. The rumor was based on fact but the facts were not complete. My reindeer are of the Cervidea species. They are common in the Siberian taiga, just south of the Artic Circle, where they are called Siberian reindeer. In North America they are called caribou. These caribou are larger than the white-tailed deer of North America The Cervidea are unique in that both the male and female of the species grow antlers. It is the only species of reindeer where the female has a rack. (It may have something to do with the intense cold. Ainu women of extreme northern Japan are the only human females that regularly grow beards.) Cervidea antlers are grown during the summer. The male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to Mid-December. On the other hand the female reindeer retain their antlers through the holiday season and do not shed until spring, after giving birth. Since male caribou have already shed their antlers by Christmas and every picture of my sleigh shows team members with a full head of antlers it was wrongly assumed that all of my reindeer (read caribou) were female. What those who started the rumor failed to remember is that during the heat of the season we are flying from task to task and don’t have time for any publicity shots. Thus all the photo-ops are earlier in the season when male and female alike have antlers. ----------------0----------------- I’ll be in touch next month. Santa’s Friend Glenn
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