Monday, March 1, 2010

Fur Rondy - Part 4: Meet the Reindeer

One thing I was most looking forward to this weekend was seeing a real caribou in person. The caribou, or reindeer, were available for a meet-and-greet before the Running of the Reindeer race, so I was only too happy to participate. These are ranch-raised caribou from Palmer. I learned that their toes (which are pretty weird looking) flatten out and act as snowshoes when they're on snow, and when they swim, the deer can cross their long front toes to help them paddle through the water. They have really sweet faces, I think.

Here's Jim with a four-year-old. The ranch-raised caribou aren't as large as wild ones are, but I was kinda surprised they weren't taller. However, if you take the antlers into consideration, that adds a lot of height!


Jane took this picture of Jim and me next to a trailer of more reindeer:

Jane meets a caribou:

The deer are being moved into position at the starting line of the race. 

"Neener neener, I'm gonna getcha!"

Next up: The Running of the Reindeer. Stay tuned!

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