Reindeer

Recently, someone told me a joke about reindeer. It was one of those very bad email forward jokes, so I won't bother to repeat it here. However, it did get me thinking about reindeer and the santa lengend and all that good stuff. I never intended to blog about it, but when I went looking for info I found pictures that were just too pretty to resist.

This picture is from the Alaskan Arctic Reserve; the very place that Bush and co. are so excited about. It turns out that there are many different kinds of reindeer-like animals, and that the ones in Alaska are probably quite different from any Northern European ones that Santa would have. One source says that only the ones found in the wild, in North America are technically called Caribou. The rest are commonly called reindeer or Rangifer tarandus if you want to be really specific. There are quite a few reindeer kept at a zoo near here, so it is always fun to go see them around Christmas time. Let's hope Santa's bunch are up to the task tomorrow!