Reindeer facts - Amazing Facts

Santa Claus's sleigh is pulled by flying reindeer.

The reindeer "Rangifer tarandus", also known as caribou in North America. Reindeer are native to Northern climates - North America and Northern Europe, Arctic tundra, forests, and mountains in Russia, Northern China, Canada, Alaska, and Scandinavia. Some reindeer migrate in huge herds from the coastal Arctic to the tundra.

The cold climate, common habitat is the tundra (A treeless area between the icecap and the tree line of Arctic regions, having a permanently frozen subsoil and supporting low-growing vegetation such as lichens, mosses, and stunted shrubs)

The reindeer is an herbivore (a plant-eater) who spends most of the day eating. During the winter, reindeer eat lichens and moss; in warmer months, they also eat leaves and herbs.

One more interesting reindeer facts is that a reindeer that is one year old makes a clicking sound while walking, which helps it to track others in case they go astray, or if there is a snow blizzard.

Most of the reindeer that are seen today are domesticated. Reindeer help to provide us with butter, meat, milk and cheese. In fact, reindeer milk is rich in both proteins and fat.

Reindeer can run up to forty miles per hour. In fact, a just born reindeer can easily outrun a full grown athletic man. The blood of the caribou supposedly mixed with alcohol as a beverage by hunters and loggers in the colonial Quebec to counter the cold. This beverage is now enjoyed without the blood as a wine and whiskey drink known as Caribou.

The reindeer is said to be an endangered species as their numbers have dwindled off late, due to hunting and loss of habitat.