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| ISBN-13: | 9780752495927 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The History Press |
| Publication date: | 10/19/2006 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 192 |
| File size: | 12 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
| Age Range: | 12 Years |
Read an Excerpt
The Real Rudolph
A Natural History of the Reindeer
By Tilly Smith
The History Press
Copyright © 2013 Tilly SmithAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7524-9592-7
CHAPTER 1
Who is Rudolph?
It is Christmas Eve and a party of people have joined me on the mountainside to visit part of the Cairngorm reindeer herd. With the group gathered round I extol the virtues of reindeer, explaining how they can survive in temperatures similar to a deep freeze and how their placid nature stems from thousands of years of domestication by man. While the group of reindeer patiently wait to be fed, I ask the visitors if anyone has any questions. Encouraged by his mother, a young lad pipes up, 'Which one is Rudolph?' 'Well actually,' I reply, 'Rudolph's not here today. He's higher up in the mountains resting in preparation for the busy night ahead, but I have got some of his friends here instead.' 'Oh,' he replies, a little disappointed by Rudolph's absence. He perseveres though and, looking quizzically at the reindeer, asks, 'How do they fly?' With a suitably serious expression on my face, I reply, 'Only Santa Claus knows the real answer to your question but I think it is something to do with the magic stardust that he sprinkles on the reindeers' favourite food, lichen.' Then, with the flying abilities of reindeer satisfactorily explained, I proceed with the rest of the visit.
A Visit from St Nicholas
Rudolph was not the first flying reindeer; indeed, he was not created until 1939. In fact the first reference to flying reindeer in modern times comes from a poem written by Clement C. Moore, a classical scholar and poet, who in 1822 wrote a poem about the night before Christmas for his children. An expert on folklore, in particular of the Dutch, German and Scandinavian immigrants who had settled in the United States, Moore blended aspects of St Nicholas, the patron saint of travel, children and sailors with the Dutch equivalent Sinterklaas, the pagan mid-winter festival concerned with appeasing the gods with feasts and festivities, and Norse mythology. From this concoction he wrote the following poem:
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugarplums danced in their heads;
And Mama in her kerchief and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there rose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled and shouted and called them by name –
'Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! On Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall!
Now, dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!'
As dry leaves before the wild hurricanes fly,
When they meet with an obstacle mount to the sky,
So up to the housetop the coursers they flew,
With a sleigh full of toys – and St Nicholas too;
And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes how they twinkled! His dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And his beard on his chin was as white as the snow!
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump – a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me the know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight,
'Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!'
Clement C. Moore, 1822
So where did Clement Moore get the idea that St Nick may arrive on a sleigh pulled by 'eight tiny reindeer'? In Norse mythology Odin, the warrior god of wisdom and war, rode a horse called Sleipner, a fine young stallion with eight legs born to Loki, the god of Hokey Pokey and one of the world's major trickster gods. Perhaps the combination of this eight-legged beast, a large amount of magic and the ancient Finnish legend of 'Old Man Winter', who drove the reindeer down from the mountains into the lowlands with the coming of cold weather, had inspired Moore. Certainly Odin was a god who presided over those who deserved reward or punishment. Riding his fine beast and clad in a large cloak and wide-brimmed hat, he visited the Norse people dispensing punishments and rewards as appropriate.
Wherever Clement C. Moore gathered his ideas for the poem, it became an instant success across America and remains a popular children's Christmas poem to this day, republished and recited in various forms. But in recent times the original eight reindeer – Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen – have been joined by another, perhaps the best known of all.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Rudolph was created by the Montgomery Ward group of department stores in the United States. They commissioned author Robert L. May to come up with a Christmas story as a promotional gimmick for their customers in 1939. The story goes that May based his story 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Rein-deer' on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale 'The Ugly Duckling'. It was about a young reindeer who was very different to the rest of the herd because of his red nose. Indeed, in the original story Rudolph was not one of Santa's reindeer and he lived in a reindeer village that was not necessarily at the North Pole. The story was created around the time of alcohol prohibition, when the subject of alcoholism and drunkards was taboo. A red nose was often a sign of drunkenness and the department-store managers were nervous that a reindeer with a red nose would be unsuitable for a Christmas tale. But their concerns were unfounded and in the very first year of publication Montgomery Ward handed out 2.5 million copies. During the Second World War printing was suspended for several years, but even so some 6 million copies had been distributed by 1946.
The Ninth Flying Reindeer
In 1949 a song about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was recorded by Gene Autry. It sold 2 million copies and has gone on to be one of the best -selling Christmas songs of all time. The lyrics were written by Johnny Marks and there were substantial differences from May's original story. In the song Marks brought together the original eight reindeer from Clement Moore's poem with Rudolph as their leader; his nose lit up the sky and guided them through the foggy night. Everyone in the Western world knows who Rudolph is on Christmas Eve when he helps Santa deliver the presents to all the children. But who is he, or she, for the rest of the year?
A Family of Deer
There are at least forty different species of deer spread across the world, occupying a vast range of ecological niches. The smallest member of the family is the Pudu, which frequents the forested slopes of the Andes, while the largest is the moose, which inhabits the forests and marsh lands of northern Europe, Siberia, Canada, Alaska and the state of Wyoming in the United States. Rudolph is to be found living to the south of Santa's home at the North Pole, in the tundra, mountains and woodlands of the arctic and sub-arctic areas of the northern hemisphere. His scientific name is Rangifer tarandus and he is the only arctic species of deer. Famous for long migrations, large herd size, a predilection for lichen and as a food source for wolves and man, Rudolph is a deer whose range covers one-fifth of the earth's surface and whose total world population is approximately 6 million. He goes by the name of reindeer in north Scandinavia and Russia, after the Lappish word 'reino', meaning reindeer calf, while in the North American arctic he is called caribou, a name derived from the Micmac Indian word meaning 'digger of snow'. Across Russia and north Scandinavia the vast majority of reindeer are domesticated and underpin the lifestyle of the indigenous people of these areas. However, the caribou remain completely wild.
As a general rule, male and female reindeer and caribou are referred to as bulls and cows respectively and the young are called calves. This contrasts with other species of deer, for example fallow deer, which are normally called bucks, does and fawns, and red deer, which are generally called stags, hinds and calves.
Habits and Habitat
As a member of the deer family Cervidae, Rudolph shares many features common to other species within the family. They all belong to the sub-order Ruminantia and so all deer digest their food by a process of rumination or 'chewing the cud'. This complicated process involves a combination of four separate stomach chambers between the oesophagus and the intestine and requires the services of millions of bacteria and hundreds of millions of protozoa.
During a feeding session a deer will crop as much vegetation as it needs, using its front incisors, and stores it partially chewed in the first and most capacious of the stomach chambers, the rumen. Once satisfied, he will then generally lie down to digest the food he has gathered. This part of the process involves small balls of food, or cud, being regurgitated, chewed properly using the molars and swallowed again. It then proceeds through the next three chambers, the reticulum, omasum and abomasum, and finally reaches the intestine. Throughout these phases bacteria break down the plant cellulose and starch by means of enzymes into soluble fatty acids. These bacteria are then consumed by the protozoa, which, besides digesting starch, convert plant protein into animal protein. In their turn the protozoa become available to the ruminant when they themselves are destroyed and digested further down the intestine. The whole process involves copious quantities of saliva, reproducing bacteria and protozoa and an extremely complicated stomach lining of mucous-secreting glands. During the process large quantities of methane and carbon dioxide are produced. Such activity occupies a substantial percentage of the body mass of a deer, and indeed the rumen and associated organs constitute 50 per cent of the live weight of the animal.
This type of digestion governs the daily behavioural pattern of deer. Throughout the daylight hours deer will alternate feeding with periods of resting and digesting. This can be an important survival strategy for a primary consumer that is vulnerable to predation while out feeding, but can hide itself away or gather as a group during the process of digestion. Rumination is also an extremely efficient way to digest food and extract all the goodness from a huge variety of vegetation. This has led to different members of the deer family being able to occupy a vast array of habitats, from the tundra of the frozen north to the profuse tropical rain-forests of the south.
According to the habitat they live in, different deer species vary in their habits from being basically solitary to highly gregarious. The smaller, more primitive deer, like the Pudu, tend to be solitary, only forming small family groups at certain times of year. Quite often there is bonding for life between male and female. At the other end of the evolutionary spectrum, deer species like reindeer or caribou tend to form large herds with the males claiming a harem of females during the breeding season. This polygamous reproductive strategy means there is no lasting contact between males and females after the rutting season. The reproductive success of a bull reindeer holding a harem of cows is enhanced by the attainment of a large body size, hence there is a marked size dichotomy between bulls and cows with breeding bulls being considerably bigger.
Vital Statistics
My first impression of reindeer was how small they seemed to be, and visitors to our Cairngorm herd commonly comment that they expected the animals to be bigger. I am not sure how this misconception arises but I think it may result from the fact that people confuse reindeer with the larger moose. The average reindeer stands 120cm at the shoulder and weighs anything up to 150kg. The moose by comparison is substantially bigger, at more than twice the height and weight.
The caribou of North America are on average taller and heavier than the reindeer of Eurasia, with a fully grown bull caribou being up to 50 per cent heavier than a reindeer bull. Size is mainly a reflection of the level of nutrition available, so when reindeer were introduced into Alaska at the turn of the twentieth century, on to pristine islands where there had been no previous grazing, this resulted in heavier animals developing there compared with those in Eurasia. Also it is a well-known fact that the process of domestication can produce a smaller animal than the wild equivalent. Thus domesticated reindeer are not only smaller than caribou but also smaller than wild reindeer in Eurasia.
A Striking Feature – the Antlers
One striking – quite literally – and common feature that links all but one of the members of the deer family is the presence of antlers. Antlers are a bit of a conundrum to many people because they fall off every year like a leaf on a tree and then re-grow. This annual process seems like rather a waste of energy, especially as there are only a few months in which the deer can grow them. Growth rate among deer with the largest antlers is very fast indeed, and in fact growing antler is thought to be the fastest -growing living tissue in the animal kingdom today.
It is perhaps useful at this stage to differentiate between antlers and horns, both appendages that grow out of the skull. Antlers are made of bone, whereas horn is made from a material called keratin – the same material as human fingernails. Like our fingernails, horn grows continuously from the base, so, for example, sheep, goats and antelope continually grow horns throughout their life. The blood supply at the base of the horn feeds the growing tissue which pushes outwards, thus extending the length of the constantly growing horn. The process of antler growth, however, is completely different. The antler grows from a permanent protrusion from the skull called the pedicle, and is encased in a protective skin called velvet. The velvet actually carries blood vessels to the tip of the antler where it grows. In effect the antlers grow by a process of elongation. During the period of growth, when bone tissue is formed and ossifies, the antlers are covered in this protective velvet skin. However, once the antlers have grown to their full size then the blood supply at the base of the antlers is cut off and the velvet skin literally dies and peels away to reveal the hard bone antlers beneath. Once the velvet has gone the antlers cannot re-grow unless the hard bone antlers fall off and new velvet buds grow from the same place on the skull. Bone is a relatively brittle material compared with horn. Both appendages are mainly used as weapons for fighting but where horn is very durable and flexible, antlers are relatively easily broken. By casting their antlers and re-growing them the following year, deer can replace any broken antlers and an increase in size, related to age, can be achieved.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Real Rudolph by Tilly Smith. Copyright © 2013 Tilly Smith. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements and Picture Credits,Preface: Love at First Sight,
1 Who is Rudolph?,
2 Rudolph's Relations,
3 The Reindeer Year,
4 Hairy Bums, Flat Feet and Velvet Noses,
5 Feast and Famine,
6 The Early Taming of Reindeer,
7 Farm Animal of the North,
8 Reindeer Cultures,
9 Reindeer,
10 Other Lands,
11 Herd,
12 Modern-day Lapland,
13 From Lapland to Scotland,
14 Scottish Reindeer Tales,
15 The Story of Christmas,
16 Rudolph's Future,
Appendix: Where to See Reindeer,
Notes,
Bibliography,