As we all know Rudolph the red-nose reindeer had a very shiny nose, but did you know that Santa’s sleigh-pulling crew are all female?
Well, they are and science proves it.
Four years ago, in a post shared to Twitter, @catreynoldsnyc excitedly shared the news: ‘MALE REINDEER LOSE THEIR ANTLERS IN WINTER AND FEMALES DON’T THEREFORE SANTA’S SLEIGH IS ACTUALLY PULLED BY A TEAM OF STRONG, POWERFUL, UNDERRATED WOMEN!!!!! YOU GO, GIRLS!! I SEE YOU!!!’
As you can imagine, people quickly responded to the apparent revelation.
Some were delighted with the reveal, with one user saying, ‘galz doing it themselves’. Meanwhile, others wanted to play Grinch and spoil Christmas for everyone, claiming the news wasn’t real.
Well, it turns out there really is a strong possibility all of Santa’s reindeer gang are female. In an interview for The Telegraph, Edinburgh University professors Gerald Lincoln and David Baird confirmed that ‘male reindeer actually cast their antlers before Christmas, so they don’t have any antlers at Christmastime’.
Female reindeer shed their antlers too, though this doesn’t happen until the spring, meaning the antlered reindeers we see pulling Santas sleigh in December are, likely, female.
‘They have their mating season in autumn when they use their antlers to fight, but once it finishes they cast them … I just wanted to remind people that it is never quite so straightforward, and even females develop weapons when it comes to the real world of seasonal breeding,’ Lincoln added.
Although, that’s not necessarily the whole story, according to Professor Lincoln. The professor explained there’s also a possibility that the reindeers pulling Santa’s sleigh are castrated males as they stop losing their antlers. ‘I think it’s nicest to think that Rudolph was a female’, he said, and we have to agree.
Well, whether Santa’s reindeer are male or female, we’ll be waiting to catch a glimpse of them soon!
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