As the well known Christmas song tells us, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was initially laughed at by his friends until Santa chose him to lead his sleigh on Christmas eve.

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Then how they cheered and assured Rudolph that he would go down in history.

And that is exactly what has happened for that song, written in 1953 is now part of recent history and just as popular as when it was penned back in the day.

However, reindeer, which is the only species of deer where both males (bulls) and females (cows) sport antlers, form a major part of our ancient history too.

Because, 200,000 years ago, the animals were widespread in Britain and roamed freely in the icy landscape.

Then, as the climate gradually warmed and became unsuitable, reindeer were confined to Scotland until they finally died out there too.

Reindeer employ their large forward-pointing antlers to scrape snow from their diet of lichens and plants and their large hooves are also adapted to splay out when walking in snow.

In North America they are called caribou which translated from the red Indian language means 'snow shoveller'.

Genuine wild reindeer only live in small herds in Scandinavia while in Lapland, many are domesticated to provide food, clothing and transport. Scotland also supports a few herds which are hired out during the Christmas festivities.

So, as we listen out on Christmas eve for those jingle bells, perhaps Rudolph will be prancing along over our rooftops in a snowy winter wonderland.

Happy Christmas everyone.