{"id":250989,"date":"2026-01-18T10:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T10:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/250989\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T10:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T10:35:07","slug":"it-runs-faster-than-a-passenger-train-and-migrates-1200km-a-year-meet-the-real-life-sleigh-pullers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/250989\/","title":{"rendered":"It runs faster than a passenger train and migrates 1,200km a year \u2013 meet the real-life sleigh pullers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Santa\u2019s reindeer might be able to circumnavigate the globe in a night but the real-life animals can clock up some serious mileage with their feet firmly on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>Reindeer are found in the polar regions of Europe, Siberia and North America, where they are known as caribou.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdnsciencepub.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1139\/z89-093\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">An early satellite study<\/a> recorded caribou in Arctic Alaska travelling distances of 5,000km each year, but experts say <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41598-019-51884-5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">migratory round trips peak at around 1,200km<\/a> annually. Distances are getting shorter as herds decline due to habitat changes.<\/p>\n<p>Migratory reindeer spend the summer months in their northern calving grounds, grazing on the tundra.<\/p>\n<p>As winter takes hold they move to the shelter of the forests further south, living on mosses and lichens. <\/p>\n<p>They can reach top speeds of 80kph, and trot at 40kph across challenging terrain.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s00300-025-03401-w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Scientists studying how reindeer move so efficiently<\/a> have discovered coordination is key. Reindeer take long strides when travelling uphill, with their wide hoof palms and surrounding bristles providing non-slip support.<\/p>\n<p>On downhill sections they \u2018go with the flow\u2019 according to researchers, keeping their stride long to take advantage of gravity and using their hind wrist joints to enhance braking.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Santa\u2019s reindeer might be able to circumnavigate the globe in a night but the real-life animals can clock&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-250989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}