Svalbard has reindeer.
Reindeer are just European caribou.
But Svalbard reindeer are weird.
There’s not much food on the island. So instead of travelling in big herds they travel in little groups of a mom, a dad and a baby.
And they are smaller.
With stubby little legs.
The little food there is has lots of rocks in it.
Which they eat by accident.
Which breaks all their teeth. So most of them die young of starvation.
Reindeer have antlers.
In the spring and summer antlers are covered in velvet, which brings blood to the antlers so they can grow. But this time of year the antlers are done growing, so the velvet is being shed.
Which leaves the antlers covered in blood.
And piles of rotting velvet scattered in the tundra.
It is pretty gross.
Then the antlers will be bare bone until they fall off.
Both the boys and the girls have antlers.
But the new babies from this year only have stubs.
The babies are cute, the blood covered antlers not so much