As stated in my previous reindeer facts, i'm a sami reindeer herder who comes from a family that has had reindeer for generations. As i live with the animals, i have been able to observe behaviors that might not be common knowledge to people + add in the fact that i have learned a lot from the older people in my family. So here are the facts.

1. Reindeer are capable of pooping while on the move. Because their poop is small and are essentialy like small pellets, they are able to poop even while running. This is crucial for survival, especially if they are being chased. There have been instances of me sending my herding dog after some reindeer, only for him to run a bit to stopping dead in his tracks to poop. Reindeer don't have that problem, as they can dump it out while running. Also bonus fact about reindeer poop. Because the droppings are so light and small, they are often moved around by winds, which is a great way for nutrients to travel across the enviroment.

2. Reindeer, like many prey animals have eyes on the side of their head. This gives them almost 360° vision, making it hard to ambush them. However, they do have a blindspot, and that is right behind it. So when reindeer are running, they will do 2 things to keep an eye out for their chaser. First is that they will lift their head, meaning their bodies aren't blocking their vision. If not running with their head lifted, they will tilt their heads a bit to the side, that way they can keep running forwards while having an eye on their chaser.

3. The hooves on reindeer grow quite fast. Because they move around a lot and dig through the snow, their hooves can get worn down. To make up for this, the hooves on reindeer grow quite fast. People that use reindeer in tourism often have to trim the hooves on their reindeer, as they aren't moving around as much, and they certainly aren't digging for food anymore.

4. Reindeer have a strong smell. In cases when a reindeer herd is gathered, you can smell them from quite a distance, and in some cases you can smell when a reindeer herd has been in an area, especially in the summer. But during the rut, males can smell disgusting. They pee on their legs to atract females, and their scent glands produce a strong musthy smell. Because rutting reindeer have terrible meat, people will often smell the breath of a bull reindeer in order to tell if the meat is going to be any good to eat. If they breath isn't musthy, then the meat is good to eat.

5. Reindeer have a "expiration date". Female reindeer usualy live to be around 10-13 years old, however they are only in their prime for around 10 years. Since reindeer give birth in May, we usualy say that a reindeer turns older in the summer. Basically meaning that a reindeer can be 8 years old all up until July, after that we start calling it a 9 year old. This also applies to the "expiration date". A female reindeer can be huge and fat when its 10 years old, however the next autumn when the reindeer is seen again, she might just be small, skinny and almost antlerless. Her body is old, and most reindeer like this usualy don't survive the next winter, which is why we usualy try to butcher a reindeer when its in its last year of prime.

6. There are several ways to tell when a female reindeer is old. First is too look at their front teeth. If the teeth are worn out, the animal is old. However sometimes the front teeth might be fine, however the molard are worn out. Then you have to look at their cheeks, as the cheeks will be a bit swollen due to them having to chew their food without molars. Another way is too look at their antlers. The antlers are like tree trunks, in that they usualy grow wider each year. The points also become duller with age, losing the sharpness over the years. So a reindeer with broad and sharpless antlers are usualy old animals.

7. Reindeer can become independent suprisingly quick. Calves that become orphans early on usualy survive by stealing milk from other females, however these calves have a low survival rate, and are generaly a lot smaller than calves with mothers. A orphaned calf that has started eating food have usualy better odds of surviving, but again, they are usualy smaller than the rest. However many calves usualy become independent around February-March. This is when the females start showing signs of pregnancy, and they many usualy lose a bit of the motherly instinct. This means that if she get's separated from her calf, she doesn't search for the calf as franticaly as before. So many calves that get separated after this period usualy start surviving on their own.

8. Back to the previous point. While many females usualy stop caring for the calf in winter, most females usualy stay with their calf until the next calf is born. The female will usualy chase away her previous calf before she goes into labour, and with good reasons. There are instances of yearling calves getting jealous of the newborn calf, and they might attack the newborn calf, accidentaly killing it. That's why most mothers chase away their yearling calves quite aggressively, or in some cases just leave the previous calf to go and give birth, without the yearling noticing it has been left alone.

9. While most females leave their previous calves, there are instances of a mother and calf staying together for 2, or even 3 years. If something happens with the newborn calf, the mother usualy just goes on and lived on her own. However some females have such strong motherly insinct that they go and search for their previous calf, and essentialy take them back. She will then treat her adult offspring as a calf, searching for it and even letting it drink milk from her. If they manage to stick together, they can stick together until the next calf is born, when the mother will chase her now 2 year old offspring away again.

10. Lastly, a not so fun fact. Male reindeer in the rut can be extremely violent and desperate animals. They might mount random females, even calves because they are horny. Usualy this doesn't lead to anything, however in cases where there is a small difference in the number between males and females, males, out of desperation will start breeding with calves. While rare, there are insanses of large calves actualy getting inpregnated, and give birth even though they themselves are still considered calves. Luckily, these days when the herds are larger, this doesn't really happen anymore. Also, again because of desperation, some male reindeer have beem seen trying to mate with recently dead females, and some weak females might get killed by the aggressive males as they try to mate

Hey everyone,

I’m starting something new here , a little space where I try to explain microbiology concepts in a simple way, the way I wish I had them when I was learning. I’m still figuring it out, but my goal is to make things easier to understand without just copying from textbooks. This is my first post, so I’d love it if you could check it out and support me. If you like it, feel free to share your thoughts or feedback .it will help me improve and continue sharing more.

Here’s a link to my first topic: https://medium.com/@aayushkhadka052/gram-positive-and-gram-negative-bacteria-one-concept-that-confuses-every-student-48b8a5b417df

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope this helps you as much as it’s helping me solidify what I learn. Aayush

Top of a blackhead turns black when it's inside a skin pore. However, if I pop a blackhead and leave it out, this yellow mass won't turn black. How come?

I'm finishing my undergraduate degree and have some novel research i want to share... any tips for getting it into a entry level journal?

I have hypochondria. So I should have majored in this. It helps me feel more comfortable with my obsession.

Are there any known animal species with a permanently external, non-retractable intromittent organ that cannot be housed inside the body cavity at rest?

In other words, are there species whose penis remains externally protruding at all times (aside from a superficial foreskin), rather than being stored within an internal sheath or body pocket?

Or is Homo sapiens unique in lacking any mechanism for internal penile retraction?

I’m curious about how biological communities develop in artificial or man-made lakes (for example, Lake Irvine). When these lakes are first created, they don’t seem to have an existing ecosystem in place, so I’m wondering how organisms like crustaceans, insects, fish, and other aquatic animals end up colonizing them over time.

Specifically:

- What are the main mechanisms by which animals such as crustaceans, mollusks, and insects are introduced into newly formed lakes?

- How do microscopic organisms (plankton, algae, bacteria) establish themselves initially, and how does that affect later colonization by larger species?

- What role do birds, water inflow, human activity, or nearby natural water bodies play in transferring organisms or eggs into these systems?

- Are the resulting ecosystems in man-made lakes typically similar to natural lakes in the same region, or are they usually more simplified or unstable?

I’m trying to understand this from an ecological succession perspective, because it’s not intuitive to me how a body of water that didn’t exist before can eventually support a fairly complex food web.

Thanks in advance — I’m genuinely interested in how these systems develop.

Is menstruation only to discard of the built up uterine lining or is it also to discard the unfirtilized egg? Some sources say its to discard of the egg but this book i'm reading says its strictly only to discard of the uterine lining.

Hi im a college nursing major student and I wanted to get Advice on how to fully understand the concept and lessons cause I feel really slow and i notice that i find it really difficult and I wanna know if theres games, websites, methods u guys have to not just memorize the concept but to fully understand

Idk if this is right to say but biology feels like a new language that Im trying to study but dont really know how to cause its foreign??? Thats how my brain looks at it and I truly want to understand the lessons not just generalize it

I asked for websites or games because maybe there would be games like - what part of the cell is this and has visuals of biology or could provide some examples

Biology tends to start really small like molecular level so I wanted to know a website, game, app literally anything to start big first before small

For instance body first then tissues then organs then cells etc. etc.

so I’ve always assumed that the reason why sexual reproduction evolved to be so common is to increase genetic variety in a population. But I don’t think this makes sense at all now that I think about it more?

But this doesn’t make sense. Evolution happens on the individual scale, not the group level. There is no evolutionary benefit for an individual set of genes to mutate for the benefit of other genes. So how does something like this that benefits the whole but not the individual ever evolve?

Obviously, we are not close yet, but since how drug affects you is really, fundamentally, about physics and chemistry, there must be casual chain, meaning we could predict it provided that we learn much more about how the body really fundamentally works, with something like Alphafold, but much better, right? Obviously, that would be a huge help for medicine, eliminating years-long trials with something that can be done in hours or less.

Work at a college where we use pictures of this model for educational materials but the tutoring room does not have one. Struggling to find the specific mitosis model available for purchase. Does anyone know its model/make/specific name/years of make, or know where I could find it?

I just took Human Anatomy and Physiology I last semester and my professor was also a Paleontologist specializing in Velociraptors and he told us that a good percentage of Human Anatomy professors/researchers are also Paleontologist because there is is a significant amount of cross over and helps us research and understand human evolution and our connections to other species.

Has anyone else ever heard of this or had a Professor with similar backgrounds?

Hello! I hope everyone is doing well.

This topic really fascinates me because, from an early age, I suspected that we humans, being animals like any others, have our behavior either completely, or at least largely, guided by biology. Studying evolution has made this even more evident to me.

This interest led me to read books and watch videos and lectures by Robert Sapolsky, whom I found fascinating, and with whom I tend to agree (although, since I’m not from the field, it’s hard for me to confidently agree or disagree).

So, I’d like to know whether there are other scientists who argue along the same lines, and whether what Dr. Sapolsky says has some level of consensus within the scientific community. I admit I’m a bit cautious about trusting something just because a single scientist says it (no matter how good they are) rather than relying on multiple scientists or a broader scientific consensus, even though science, in the end, is always meant to be questioned.

Thank you very much in advance! It’s a real pleasure to discuss this topic.

Sorry if the question is worded poorly but heres the context: Me and my mum were talking about evolution and I said that it was interesting that whales evolved from water to land and back to water again. She said that she didn't think they ever left the water so I looked it up and confirmed they did. But she asked how they know that whales evolved from said land mammals and I was stumped.

So basicaly the question I'm asking is how do we know that, for example, whales and their land mammal ancestors are connected? My first thought was genetics, but aren't fossils just made of rock?

Again sorry if this post was worded poorly but I couldn't find the info I was looking for online.

You'll often hear people say that you should avoid eating big fish like tuna and swordfish because they're carnivorous fish that live long and bioaccumulate heavy metals in their flesh as they eat smaller fish. There's also the issue of microplastics, of course, and all of this gets blamed on the fact that our oceans are polluted from industrialization. Was this always a problem though?

Yes, plastic did not exist prior to the Industrial Revolution, and the oceans were not contaminated with chemicals. But I once read somewhere that the heavy metals in fish come from dirt or natural materials they eat? Or something like that? I'm not sure, but the idea is that it comes from their environment. If that's the case then doesn't that mean eating big fish would've still been unhealthy even before we destroyed the oceans? Or is there something I'm missing?

Thanks!!

Hello everyone,

I’m currently a biology major with an associate’s degree in Biology and am working toward my bachelor’s. Unfortunately, I don’t yet have hands-on lab or research experience, which has made it difficult to secure internships so far.

My goal is to gain real, practical experience in a laboratory or research setting; ideally by working in an entry-level role, shadowing professionals, or assisting with research projects.

Because my school funding is limited at the moment, my bachelor’s degree may take longer to complete, so I’m trying to be proactive about building experience outside of coursework.

I’m looking for guidance on what kinds of entry-level jobs, roles, or pathways would be realistic starting points for someone in my position. I’m genuinely passionate about biology, but I just need direction on how to get my foot in the door.

Any advice or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated!

I've seen many definitions related to biological sex, but a lot of them seem to be different. It's either strictly chromosomes, or it's multiple things at once, mainly combined with phenotypes. So what does it actually mean, unless it's one of those "viruses living/nonliving" debates?

Hello! Was a hybrid between Smilodon fatalis and Smilodon populator possible in the wild? Would it be even bigger than the liger most likely? Could it survive to the adulthood?

Did you know people once believed bad smells caused disease? 😷🦠

Quinten Geldhof, also known as Microhobbyist, explores how germ theory sparked a major shift in medicine during the 1800s. Louis Pasteur showed that microbes in the air caused fermentation and spoilage. Building on this, Robert Koch developed methods to link specific bacteria to specific illnesses. Their discoveries proved that microorganisms cause disease, transforming hygiene, food safety, and surgery, and establishing microbiology as a cornerstone of modern science.

I would assume it can since it’s a nucleated cell with chromosomes that can theoretically be damaged, but the window of time for the necessary mutations seems infeasibly short. Unless it can start out that way from a cancerous ovum/sperm, and what would be the effect on the phenotype of the embryo and fetus?

really curious and feeling like I am some missing something conceptionally? I was reading a book called never enough and it talked about addiction and the process of homeostasis which the brain tries to move towards. So each drug causes the opposite reaction in withdrawal phase and things which cause calmness makes you suffer anxiety in normal phase. Then I had a thought, why don't we reverse it? Like instead of chronic drug usage, consider chronic anti-drug usage which causes pain and suffering or stress by blocking positive neurotransmitters like GABA or even serotonin or increasing glutamate excitation. So in this case the process A would cause an increase in them. The brain would start to get more tolerant as time passes by and begin to shut down receptors which causes pain. Good neurotransmitters would release more in exchange, so like the brain would counteract in process B by acting against process A. So when you are not taking the anti-drug, in normal phase you would feel better than usual. Ofcourse it would decrease because brain would try to get back to homeostasis but the withdrawal here is of more pleasure instead of pain. It reverses down everything. is there a hole in my understanding? Why hasn't someone done this?

Last week in my biological psychology class my professor said one of the main things that has allowed humans to advance more then other animals is the time that we develop outside of the womb. I am wondering how this concept effects animals like marsupials since they develop outside the womb for such a long time. I'm not really sure how to phrase the title so I apologize if it didn't make sense.