Reindeer aka Caribou

Every year around this time, we study Reindeer, not Rudolph the Red-nosed-reindeer, but reindeer in general. We learn new facts, make books, and even create our own reindeer using different body parts to be hung up outside our door.

Reindeer Facts

• Reindeer are also known as caribou.
• A girl reindeer is a called a cow and a boy reindeer is called a bull.
• A group of reindeer is called a herd.
• Reindeer migrate.
• Reindeer live in the Arctic, Northern China, Alaska, Canada, and Scandinavia.
• Reindeer have hooves, four legs,and small white tails.
• Reindeer are brown in the summer and grey in the winter.
• Reindeer are herbivores and only eat plants, lichen, and moss.
• Reindeer have antlers.
• Reindeer lose their antlers and grow new ones.

And with the last 2 facts is where we came into a little trouble this year. The kids wanted to know what color to color the antlers. I told them brown, but then gave it a second thought. My thoughts:

• They are probably brown in the summer when the reindeer are brown, but in the winter when the reindeer turn grey, do their antlers also turn grey?
• When do they loose their antlers? If they loose them in the fall, like the trees that loose their leaves, should they even have antlers in the picture of a reindeer in the winter?

So I decided we'd call my grandma, she's from Montana, she would know the answer. I put her on speaker phone and we all called her to find out the answer.

me: Hi Grandma, your on speaker phone with my class and we have a question for you.

g-ma: okay.

me: when do reindeer loose their antlers?

g-ma: I'm not sure.

me: (thinking I'd get a better answer if I say "caribou" instead of reindeer) ask, when do caribou loose their antlers?

g-ma: Caribou and Reindeer are the same thing. One is wild and the other is tame. I think that caribou are the wild ones and reindeer are the tame ones.

me: Oh, so you don't know when they loose their antlers.

g-ma: No.
me: So we have one more question for you, what color are their antlers?

g-ma: Grey.

me: Thanks.

kids: bye grandma

g-ma: bye kids

So although my grandma didn't know when they lost their antlers, she did know the color, so all the kids had to go and color their antlers grey.

Shortly after this conversation, I received this email:

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring. Therefore, according to EVERY historical rendition depicting Santa's reindeer, EVERY single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl. We should've known... ONLY women would be able to drag a fat-ass man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost.

So I guess their is my answer.