Rudolph: The Female Red Nosed Reindeer!

Insync

oi-Staff

Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 16:32

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer is the cutest and famous character in Christmas folk tales. Recently, Rudolph"s gender has been revealed. She is a female!

The idea of Rudolph being a female originated from the concept that female reindeer still have antlers at Christmas and males shed theirs before mid-December. In that case, Rudolph by any chance cannot be a male. Male reindeers have their mating season in autumn when they use their antlers to fight, but once it finishes they cast them.

Rudolph classically is red-nosed reindeer who is around at Christmas. Of the forty different species of deer in the world, only in reindeer do females have antlers. Females cast their antlers in spring, growing them back in time for winter when they need their antlers to compete with other females over holes they dig in the snow to reach lichens and to provide food for their offspring.

Edinburgh University professors Gerald Lincoln and David Baird found the gender of Rudolph, the red nosed reindeer. They feel that if Rudolph was not a female then he may have been a eunuch, because on being castrated, a male reindeer stops the process of casting the antlers in the wintertime, and they turn into being more like females. The findings will be presented during a talk at the Queen"s Medical Research Institute of Edinburgh University on December 9.