The Papo 50117 reindeer :-)

cattlecollector wrote:

I know that there is not a huge difference between the two, but I would like somebody to make a caribou, specifically woodland and central barren-ground caribou.   

Bullyland made a lovely one ! Look [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

You might still find one on the net   

SUSANNE wrote:

cattlecollector wrote:

I know that there is not a huge difference between the two, but I would like somebody to make a caribou, specifically woodland and central barren-ground caribou.   

Bullyland made a lovely one ! Look [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

You might still find one on the net   

  Gorgeous!! Thanks, Susanne!   

Hey, hey! Thread-resurrecting a bit here, as I discovered some things that, based on the morphology discussion earlier on in this thread, I thought might interest some of you.


Item number 1:
For one week still, available for free worldwide viewing is a short Finnish travel series, one episode of which has a good bit of up-and-close footage of Russian tundra type reindeer from the Yamal peninsula. The reindeer are seen at liberty; being herded, caught and earmarked; tied down to graze for the night; as well as tacked-up and driven. There are plenty of shots good enough to even make for reference material on the harnesses, sleds and headstalls of the Nenets' draught animals. I found it made for interesting viewing, if one could bear the host.

Here's a link to this reindeer episode (as well as the entire small series, available as thumbnails at the bottom of the page):

An ongoing sister series to the above Arctic Ocean tour, following the same mildly insufferable commentator around Caucasia, can also be viewed here:
It has far fewer animals, though, with the main attraction to this forum probably being the few shots of Kabardin/Кабардинская horses and chaps in traditional gear in episode 2.


Also, item number 2:
A certain Finnish nature magazine recently published an interesting small article about the Finnish forest reindeer (discussed earlier on page 4 of this thread). Since I found it gave a reasonable overview of the apparently little-known subspecies, I thought I might translate for you a brief abstract of its contents here as soon as I find the time. Would there be anyone interested in such a thing?

And, uh, what more can I bring to the reindeer table to justify my thread necromancy... Here:


Item number 3:
Have a detail shot of how the Eurasian reindeer foot really is, courtesy of yours truly and one long-eaten Finnish domestic reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus):

Quite goreless, but still a sawn-off limb, so..:

See - it certainly isn't a horse's hoof just split in two. (Toy people, please eventually stop making them that way.) Not very close to a cow or pig hoof either. The broad keratin claws, koparat, have thin and sharp but rounded tips (for "shoveling" snow when digging for food); they curve slightly inwards and upwards (less on the specimen pictured than on many I've seen); and have somewhat hollowed, but cartilage-padded palmar surfaces. There is no heel to the foot to speak of, like can be seen on most horses and trimmed cattle. The surrounding hair is generally longer than elsewhere on the animal, excluding the possible "beard".

The foot splays quite a bit when loaded (the 1st picture shows neutral posture); this way it acts as a snowshoe for the animal. Similarly, when the leg is being pulled up from underneath snow or through brush, the claws move to slightly overlap one another, reducing the force needed to pull free the leg. The dewclaws may occasionally touch the ground at the walk, trot and pace but normally not while the animal's stood still; at a gallop and during jumps I'd surmise touchdown is likely, given how greatly the pasterns give.

For an added feature, a scent gland about the size of a small thumbtip is located between the two front toes. This helps the animals create tracks and keep track of those of others while wandering the woods. For a funkier-yet foot feature, reindeer have pasterns that click. They give an audible snap each step. This helps the animals stay grouped when foraging during the winter darkness. You can kind of hear the sound here:


That high snap isn't snow whining underfoot, wind or the cameraman's clothes rustling - it's the animals' feet! The sound on the video is far higher-pitched than in real life due to the sans-base recording and, partly, to the light build of the animals (they're juveniles).

--

Alright, if even after all of that you'd still like that overview of R. t. fennicus, do comment, and I'll see about an abstract. Mainly I'm posting for the travel show episode, though - I thought it was pretty neat.

Lea, thanks for your "dissertation"! I find it extremely useful, mainly to sculptors of toy animal figures. Fortunately, brands are more exigent with their figures, so some little details canmake all difference in the final product. I love a toy that consider all particular aspects of a certain animal and not that only give us a good general appearance of the animal only to make it look nice.

Yes, thank you Lea. I enjoyed this comment. For a second that picture made me think: perhaps we should call them hare-deer.

I tried the link but the video image was black- it must be my old browsers. When played I would just hear the host... at least he sounded cheerful...

I'm sure anything you decide to post reindeerwise or otherwise would be useful and interesting.