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Caribou or Santa’s Helper?
By PK | November 24, 2008
On one of our infamous excursions, I came across Caribou. Now, I have never seen a caribou, but this time I have tasted one before when Dalton bagged one in Canada on a previous hunting adventure before I knew him. So, I immediately asked my famous question, “What is that?”
I know, I’m the worse child ever asking all these questions of him and you’re probably wondering where I’ve been all my life to be so deprived of simple acquaintances of certain wildlife. To answer that question, I must admit I was busy cleaning house, cooking not stop, and raising children. I was known as ‘Mother Goose’ or better yet, ‘The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe’ because not only did I have my children, my grandchildren at times, but also the neighborhood’s children. So, hence, I was sheltered inside that shoe.
So, now that I’m semi-retired from raising children, grandchildren, and no longer babysit the neighborhood’s children, I have time to travel around, take pictures, hike, hunt, then research and write about my current experiences. And this experience is about Caribou, also known as reindeer, and what befitting time than right before Christmas.
Actually a reindeer is only a reindeer if the caribou is wild. Does that make sense? Now, what about Rudolph? Does that make him a caribou and not a real reindeer? Maybe you shouldn’t let your child read this article, you might have a hard time explaining that Rudolph the Reindeer isn’t really a reindeer but suffers from a personality complex instead.
Reindeer or caribou, whichever you prefer, aren’t native to Colorado. These caribou are raised on a private ranch north of Steamboat near the Strawberry Hot Springs. Caribou reside in Siberia, Greenland, Alaska, and Canada.
This map shows you where reindeer and caribou can be found. The green represents caribou while the red represents reindeer.
The weight of a female varies between 130 and 370 lb. In some subspecies of reindeer, the male is slightly larger; in others, the male can weigh up to 660 lbs. Both sexes grow antlers, which for old males fall off in December, for young males in the early spring, and for females, summer. The antlers typically have two separate groups of points, a lower and upper. Domesticated reindeer are shorter-legged and heavier than their wild counterparts.
The reindeer travels the furthest of any terrestrial mammal. The caribou of North America can run at speeds up to 50 mph and can travel as much as 3,000 miles a year. Migrations can number in the thousands. The most extensive migrations occur in spring and fall. During fall migrations, the groups become smaller and the reindeer begin to mate. During the winter, reindeer travel to forested areas to forage under the snow. By spring, groups leave their winter grounds to go to the calving grounds. A reindeer can swim easily and quickly; migrating herds will not hesitate to swim across a large lake or broad river.
That is amazing that they travel as much as 3,000 miles a year. I think I’d cross off caribou on my hunting list, but reindeer hunting by humans has a very long history and caribou/wild reindeer “may well be the species of single greatest importance in the entire anthropological literature on hunting.”
Humans started hunting reindeer in the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, that’s about 10,000 B.C. Wild caribou are still hunted in North America and Greenland. In the traditional lifestyle of the Inuit people, Northern First Nations people, Alaska Natives, and the Kalaallit of Greenland, the caribou is an important source of food, clothing, shelter, and tools.
The first written description of reindeer is in Julius Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico (chapter 6.26) from the 1st century BC. Here, it is described:
There is an ox shaped like a stag. In the middle of its forehead a single horn grows between its ears, taller and straighter than the animal horns with which we are familiar. At the top this horn spreads out like the palm of a hand or the branches of a tree. The females are of the same form as the males, and their horns are the same shape and size.
Here are some more interesting tidbits about reindeer:
Reindeer have been herded for centuries by several Arctic and Subarctic people including the Sami and the Nenets. They are raised for their meat, hides, antlers and, to a lesser extent, for milk and transportation.
The use of caribou as semi-domesticated livestock in Alaska was introduced in the late 1800s by Sheldon Jackson as a means of providing a livelihood for Native peoples there. A regular mail run in Wales, Alaska used a sleigh drawn by caribou. In Alaska, caribou herders use satellite telemetry to track their herds, using online maps and databases to chart the herd’s progress.
Reindeer meat is popular in the Scandinavian countries. Reindeer meatballs are sold canned.
Sautéed reindeer is the best-known dish in Lapland.
In Alaska and Finland, reindeer sausage is sold locally to supermarkets and grocery stores.
Reindeer antler is powdered and sold as an aphrodisiac, nutritional or medicinal supplement to Asian markets.
The name Caribou comes, through French, meaning “snow-shoveler”, referring to its habit of pawing through the snow for food.
Santa Claus’ sleigh is pulled by flying reindeer. These were first named in the 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, where they are called Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder, and Blixem. Dunder was later changed to Donder and — in other works — Donner (in German, “thunder”), and Blixem was later changed to Blitzen (German for “lightning”). Some consider Rudolph as part of the group as well, though he was not part of the original named work referenced previously. Rudolph was added to the story by Robert L. May in 1939 as “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Research courtesy of Wikipedia
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Topics: Colorado |
8 Responses to “Caribou or Santa’s Helper?”
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November 24th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Oh how interesting! I hope you don’t mind if I link to this post when I write about Rudolph next month.
November 24th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Hi there, it’s really good to see a well written blog that’s insightful as well as entertaining. cheers!
November 24th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Karen, thanks for visiting. I don’t mind at all you linking to me. Thank you!
November 24th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
don’t lose your hair - thanks for the compliment. You’ve made my day!!!
November 24th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
I love your blog and have recently stumbled upon it in my recent travel plans to Steamboat. I was wondering if you could give us an update as to conditions, rumors, runs that will be open, anything at all about what is going on at the ski resort. We are heading up there December 3rd and are hoping to get three days of skiing in. Again I really enjoy your blog and look forward to your reply.
Thanks!
November 24th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Great article PK. When it comes to information about caribou you ‘reign dear’. Will it be caribou instead of elk in the freezer this year then, there seem to be a lot about.
November 26th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
very informative…wow!! hehe
November 27th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I can relate to this ! , I’ve heard some goody things about this blog ! I bookmarked it on my favorites and will visit it again for more interesting posts like this one, Thanks