What happened to Rudolf the red-nosed caribou?

@JudyEv I'll look it up. It's a shame some of our childhood 'icons' have disgraced themselves. I used to love watching him paint with his 'Can you tell what it is yet?' catchphrase!

Is there a song for them?

@Fleura Yes, it's called 'Six White Boomers', first made popular by Rolf Harris but we don't mention his name too often now. It's on YouTube if you'd like to hear it.

That's a very good point. Presumably in that case they must have been travelling from Europe or Africa. The Bible seems to say 'Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, magi from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”' So they came from the east but they also saw his star in the east. Very confusing. You can't tell whether they mean they saw the star in the eastern sky, or whether they mean that when they were in the east (where they were from) they saw the star and then followed it in an unspecified direction. I wonder if the original language is any more clear?

@Fleura That where my confusion is from, I guess they could have been from Egypt or Morocco but always thought it was more India or Iran. I don't know if the original translations are any more clear. I just read something that said tradition makes them kings from India m Arabia and Ethiopia, I suppose if India met IP with Arabia and then to Ethiopia, maybe it would be east.

@BelleStarr We know their names, although they are not actually named in the Bible, so I don't know where those came from. In fact according to Wikipedia different Christian traditions give three different names - so three different names for western Christians, Syrian Christians and Ethiopian Christians. and I don't know where any of those originally are supposed to come from. According to the New Revised Standard Version of Matthew: "In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." So it doesn't actually say in which direction they saw the star but they came from the east. Obviously different translations give quite different results! We'd have to read it in the original Greek.

Are they that different from each other?

Oh @Fleura I had no idea. Thanks.

@rebelann Well no, that's the point, caribou are reindeer!

@Fleura Carl Linnaeus had a great idea to classify and name all the animals, flowers and plant using a Latin definition. Many flowers that I see posted here have so many different names in different countries, but you can always identify them using the Latin name.

That seems to be what I have found as well. This is why the Latin names were invented of course!

No, maybe it should have been 'Clive the comical caribou' instead lol

Apparently they are the same - Rangifer tarandus - a species of deer with a circumpolar distribution.

@MALUSE I don't think that's stilted! It's a very succinct way of saying 'distributed all around the (north) pole'

@Fleura well, I see herds of caribou when I go to Banff and Jasper. They are big. On movies with reindeer, they are quite small.

You mean you know caribou as reindeer? Or you know Santa's sleigh animals as reindeer?

Plenty of people who are not Christian still go overboard for all the Santa story and the presents!

@Fleura Not us. We only celebrate Hanukkah, but I give Christmas gifts to the Christians in our family.

I don't know whether they are any different in size, but they are still the same species - Rangifer tarandus.

@Fleura That's good to know.