Santa, baby
Oh, my giddly-goodness! Did you know there's a reindeer farm? One where you can feed and pet the reindeer?
Interesting reindeer factoids:
○ Reindeer and caribou are the same thing.
○ The antlers of these reindeer were in velvet, which meant we couldn't touch the antlers - they're covered in tissue that's full of blood vessels and nerve endings, and it's very painful to the reindeer to have their antlers touched at this stage.
○ Male and female reindeer grow antlers, and both sexes lose their antlers, except for pregnant females. "It's a built-in pregnacy test," the lady giving me my tour said.
○ When reindeer walk, there's a distinct clicking noise that's often mistaken to be the sound of their hooves clacking against rocks. Not so - they have a tendon in their hind legs that "clicks" with every step they take. This tendon prevents them from really being able to kick anything behind them (in this case, me).
○ This particular group of reindeer is trained to see the little plastic cup that I was carrying and associate it with food. They're quite aggressive when they see it, and they've been known to paw at the person holding the cup when they don't get fed soon enough (read: immediately). To prevent mauling by otherwise-docile reindeer, hide the cup in a pocket (or under your arm) out of their sight (NOT behind your back - they know that trick), spread your empty hands out in front of you and back away, if needed. They get the picture pretty quickly.
Unfortunately, once they've figured out that you don't have any food, they really don't want anything to do with you. It made picture-taking a creative venture.
Interesting reindeer factoids:
○ Reindeer and caribou are the same thing.
○ The antlers of these reindeer were in velvet, which meant we couldn't touch the antlers - they're covered in tissue that's full of blood vessels and nerve endings, and it's very painful to the reindeer to have their antlers touched at this stage.
○ Male and female reindeer grow antlers, and both sexes lose their antlers, except for pregnant females. "It's a built-in pregnacy test," the lady giving me my tour said.
○ When reindeer walk, there's a distinct clicking noise that's often mistaken to be the sound of their hooves clacking against rocks. Not so - they have a tendon in their hind legs that "clicks" with every step they take. This tendon prevents them from really being able to kick anything behind them (in this case, me).
○ This particular group of reindeer is trained to see the little plastic cup that I was carrying and associate it with food. They're quite aggressive when they see it, and they've been known to paw at the person holding the cup when they don't get fed soon enough (read: immediately). To prevent mauling by otherwise-docile reindeer, hide the cup in a pocket (or under your arm) out of their sight (NOT behind your back - they know that trick), spread your empty hands out in front of you and back away, if needed. They get the picture pretty quickly.
Unfortunately, once they've figured out that you don't have any food, they really don't want anything to do with you. It made picture-taking a creative venture.
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