Flight of Fancy | Knowledge & Wisdom

In Yankee’s excerpt from Robert Sullivan’s 1996 book Flight of the Reindeer: The True Story of Santa Claus and His Christmas Mission, wildlife experts revealed some little-known facts about the Peary caribou (Rangifer tarandus pearyi), aka Santa’s reindeer.

• Like all caribou, the Peary has a cloven hoof, which creates a large surface area useful for all kinds of walking, running, and thrusting. Furthermore, the Peary living at the North Pole have developed hooves as big as those of a caribou four times their size. Flat on the bottom but streamlined from toe to heel, it acts as a kind of snowshoe on the ground, and in the air it acts as a small, solid wing.
• Among Peary caribou, only certain individuals can take off and fly for any length of time. Why? “Apparently, only one pattern of antler allows for extended flight,” says one naturalist. “This one complex configuration creates a vortex of wind at high speeds. The perfect rack acts as a big mainsail, lifting the beast heavenward.”
• While many kinds of caribou can sort of fly—for instance, a 600-pound woodland caribou can clear a river with a jump and glide—it’s only the Peary that “mounts to the sky.” Credit this partly to its physical traits, says one scholar, but also to willpower: “The truly successful flying deer, certainly including the ones used by Santa Claus, must have tremendous intestinal fortitude.”

—Adapted from “Do They Really Fly? Really?” by Robert Sullivan, December 1996. Sullivan is now finishing up his sequel, Flight of the Reindeer II: Santa’s Eternal Mission in a Smaller World.