60 | New Scientist | 21/28 December 2019A
S ANY young child knows, reindeer have
a special superpower: they can fly. Or,
at least, Rudolph and his eight sleigh-
towing pals can. Reindeer first took to the skies
in 1823, when Clement Clarke Moore published
Twas the Night Before Christmas. He is said to
have got his inspiration from the Sami people
of northern Europe, whose shamans conjured
up flying reindeer while in magic mushroom-
induced trances.
Unfortunately, that’s all bunkum – even
the bit about the Sami. But who needs fiction?Reindeer have real-world superpowers.
The animals have evolved a whole range of
amazing innovations that let them not just
survive but thrive in the frigid Arctic. Their
eyes change colour like living sunglasses, from
gold in summer to blue in winter. They see the
world in glorious ultraviolet. They can switch
their body clocks on and off, produce lots of
vitamin D even in limited sunlight and grow
antlers up to a metre long in just a few months.
What’s more, we might be able to borrow
some of those abilities. Discovering moreabout Rudolph could lead to new ways of
tackling jet lag, insomnia and cancer, and
even allow us to grow new limbs. Thanks
to recent work revealing the genetic
underpinnings of reindeer’s unusual traits,
their superpowers could one day be ours.
Nearly 5 million reindeer roam the frozen
north, from Alaska to Siberia and Greenland.
The biggest group, containing about half a
million animals, is the Taimyr herd of the
Siberian tundra. Also known as caribou in
North America, these lichen-eating ruminantsThe magical abilities of reindeer are the stuff of Christmas folklore,
but the reality is even more impressive, finds Alison George
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