At Chessington World of Adventures Resort we are home to three reindeer, and we were shocked to recently find NO dedicated reindeer emoji existed and… NO emoji of Rudolph. 

While there is currently an emoji to represent any of the 43 species of deer, including reindeer, we believe it is remiss not to have a specific reindeer emoji for Christmas. In fact, Google trends show a HUGE spike in searches for ‘reindeer emoji’ and ‘Rudolph emoji’ throughout December. 

Our Zoo Team ‘nose’ reindeer. Having just one deer emoji to represent all 40+ species is clearly not enough; there’s a need for a specific Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer emoji at this festive time of year. With the vital job of guiding Father Christmas’s sleigh, Rudolph’s red nose is iconic and we think it must be immortalised in emoji form. 

Tis’ the season for a reindeer emoji… 

Did you know...

·         Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer is female – male reindeer have their mating season in Autumn when they use their antlers to fight. They then shed their antlers before Christmas, while females keep theirs until late December. If Rudolph was male, she’d have no antlers at Christmas… looking slightly different to how she is commonly depicted.     

·         One of the easiest ways to tell the difference between deer and reindeer is by the presence of antlers. Reindeer, both male and female, are the only deer species to have seasonal antlers. In comparison, only male deer, grow antlers. 

·         Reindeer’s feet make a clicking noise, as an adaptation to living in a snowy climate – walking on snow hardly makes a sound, so the clicking noise lets reindeer know that the herd is moving on to another area to forage or for migration.

·         A reindeer’s nose has thousands of capillaries (tiny veins) that warm up the air before it enters their lungs.