Showing posts with label Santa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Santa. Show all posts

Thursday, December 8, 2022

Santa's Reindeer by J. S. Marlo

 




Wounded Hearts
"Love & Sacrifice #2"
is now available  
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‘Male reindeers lose their antlers in winter and females don’t, so Santa’s sleigh is actually pulled by a team of women…’


When I saw that quote on Facebook, it caught my attention. First, reindeer, like deer, don’t have an “s” in their plural forms. Second, it struck me as odd that the females didn’t lose their antlers, so I did some research.


Female reindeer can grow antlers, making them unique in the deer world. However, not all females have antlers since growing them costs lots of energy. In habitats where food is scarce or of poor quality, antlerless females dominate.


The female reindeer use their antlers to dig through the snow in search of food and to defend themselves. Those with the largest antlers tend to be socially dominant and in the best overall physical condition, but they still shed their antlers every year. Unlike male reindeer who lose them late autumn after the rut, female reindeer retain their antlers until spring because access to food is critical during their winter pregnancy.


Does that mean female reindeer are pulling Santa’s sleigh?  Not necessarily. Most of the reindeer used to pull sleds are castrated males because they are easier to handle than “full” males. Castrated reindeer have antler cycles similar to those of the females, only losing them in the spring.


Conclusion: Santa’s reindeer are either female or castrated male.



Other interesting facts:

– There are more than 15 subspecies of reindeer, some of which are extinct. 

– Reindeer are domesticated or semi-domesticated caribou.

– They live primarily in the Arctic, where winter is drastically colder and darker than summer.

– Their hooves are soft during warmer months, but in winter, they become hard and sharp for breaking through the ice to forage vegetation.

– To adapt to seasonal changes in light levels, the part of their eye behind the iris changes color from gold in the summer to blue in the winter.

– They travel up to 3,000 miles and swim long distances.

– They have two layers of hair to keep warm: a dense woolly undercoat, and a top layer of hollow air-filled hairs which float. Their hair have been used to fill life jackets.

– The Finnish Forest Reindeer is one of the rarest subspecies of Reindeer.


In my 2021 Christmas mystery The Red Quilt, Grandpa Eli is marooned on a potato farm with his five-year-old granddaughter. On Christmas Eve, Eli ventures outside to draw reindeer hoof prints in the snow. Here’s an excerpt:


The two forward toes made prints resembling curly teardrops with the tip pointing ahead, toward the carrot underneath the branch. He added a dot behind each teardrop design to account for the two back toes.

A vehicle turning into Lana’s driveway diverted his attention from the second print he was drawing. When blue and red lights began to flash, Eli dropped the carrot and the branch, and raised his hands as he straightened to his full height beside the bush.

The door of the patrol car opened and a silhouette stood behind it. “Mr. Sterling?”

“Yes.” The female voice jogged his memory. “Fancy meeting you here tonight, Constable Davidson. May I lower my arms?”

“Yes, please. I didn’t mean to scare you.” The lights stopped flashing, but the door remained opened as she walked toward him. “The lights were on so I thought you might be up, but then I saw someone hunched by the bush, so I overreacted.”

“I’d rather you overreact than ignore a suspicious guy making reindeer hoof prints in the snow in the wee hours of the morning,” he teased.

A smile enlivened her face as she shone the beam of her flashlight in the snow. “It’s small for a reindeer, but otherwise, it’s pretty accurate.”

Stumped by the remark, he squatted the snow. “What do you mean by small? Do you masquerade as a biologist in your spare time?”

Her laughter rose in the crisp air. “No, but I have an older sister who’s a conservation officer in the north. She spent years following the caribou herd’s migration. I know more about caribou than I ever wanted to know. For accuracy’s sake, you want them to be about four inches long.”


Click here to buy The Red Quilt, and give it to someone you love for Christmas.


Happy Holiday 2022!

J. S.

 



 
 

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Reindeer & antlers by J. S. Marlo




I don't usually write my blog more than a week ahead of time, but I'm making an exception with this one. I was going to post about my New Year resolutions, which I haven't made yet since it's only December 14, when I saw this post on Facebook about Santa's reindeer.


What I was doing on Facebook when I have a million things to do at this time of year is a discussion for another time, but the post caught my attention. Aside from the fact that reindeer, just like deer, don't usually have an "s" in their plural form, it struck me as odd that female reindeer don't lose their antlers, so I did some research.

Female reindeer can grow antlers, just like their male counterparts, making them unique in the deer world. However, not all females have antlers since growing them costs a lot of energy. In habitats where food is scarce or of poor quality, antlerless females dominate. Now, why are female reindeer different from the other female deer?

The female reindeer use their antlers to defend food in small patches 
of cleared snow, and those with the largest antlers tend to be socially dominant and in the best overall physical condition. The females also shed their antlers every year, but unlike male reindeer who lose them late autumn after the rut, female reindeer retain their antlers until spring because access to food is critical during their winter pregnancy.

So, does that mean female reindeer are pulling Santa's sleigh?  Not necessarily. It happens that most of the reindeer used to pull sleds are castrated males because they are easier to handle than "full" reindeer. Castrated reindeer have antler cycles similar to those of the females, only losing them in the spring.

Conclusion: Santa's reindeer are either female or castrated male reindeer. 

Other interesting facts about reindeer:

- There are 14 subspecies of reindeer, two of which are extinct. 
- Reindeer are domesticated or semi-domesticated caribou.
- They live primarily in the Arctic, where winter is drastically colder and darker than the summer.
- Their hooves are soft during warmer months, but in the winter, they become hard and sharp for breaking through the ice to forage vegetation.
- To adapt to seasonal changes in light levels, the part of their eye behind the iris changes color from gold in the summer to blue in the winter.
- They travel up to 3,000 miles and swim long distances along the way.
- They have two layers of hair to keep warm: a dense woolly undercoat, and a top layer of hollow air-filled hairs which float.  Their hair have been used to fill life jackets.


This is a reindeer's hoof print... which I'll try to draw in the snow for my granddaughter.

Happy New Year 2020 !!!
JS


BBC Wildlife: https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/why-do-female-reindeer-grow-antlers/ 

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Words of Wisdom to Andrew Lincoln, George Clooney, and Russell Crowe from me...by Jamie Hill






There's been much hullabaloo this week over my favorite 'The Walking Dead' character Rick Grimes, actor Andrew Lincoln, shaving his beard in a recent episode of the hit cable series. The beard furor got me thinking, have I ever written a character with a beard? I write contemporary romance, and while I'm sure many heroes in historical romance had beards, I can't think of many in contemporary settings.

Most all of my heroes have what I like to call a 'three-day beard growth'.  This works great in fiction, but in real life it's impossible to maintain for longer than a couple of days (depending on the rate of beard growth of course.) Some mens' beards grow quickly and they end up looking like Gandalf or Santa Claus.


 






 

This was the fate of Andrew Lincoln's beard in The Walking Dead, I'm afraid. A touch too long there at the end. A clean-shaven Rick was a shock, though that shower scene was pretty hot for regular TV.

 


Which do you prefer of the many stages of Rick?

 
 
I have to admit, I still prefer the three-day growth look. But I like beards! I think George Clooney and Russell Crowe can also rock the beard and to me, they look better as they age.
















I might consider giving my hero a beard in an upcoming novel. It'll have to be a fairly closely cropped, neat looking thing. No Duck Dynasty crumb catchers, just enough hair there to tickle.

What's your opinion? Barely there or totally bare? Do you dig beards? I have to admit I do. And if I could offer some words of advice to the actors above I'd say totally keep the beards. These guys know how to rock them.

Jamie Hill ~ Romantic Thrills ~ Suspenseful Chills

Find my beard-free titles at Books We Love: http://bookswelove.net/authors/hill-jamie/

or on my clean-shaven website: http://www.jamiehill.biz/
 
Follow my 'possibility of a beard in a book' writing progress on Facebook: 



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