These reindeer can’t fly, but they sure can swim

They live at the North Pole. They fly through the night pulling Santa’s sleigh. They play reindeer games (Texas Hold ‘Em, to be precise). Sure, most Americans have a few ideas about reindeer. But beyond the trivia we’ve heard in stories and songs, few people know the sordid truth about Santa’s furry minions.

“A lot of kids who come here don’t even think they’re real until they see them,” says Jason Jacobs, director of public relations for the Los Angeles Zoo, referring to the zoo’s annual Reindeer Romp.

For six weeks beginning this weekend, four reindeer on loan from the bearded fat man himself will fly into the zoo where they’ll frolic, cavort and, yes, romp.

1. THEY LIKE TUBA MUSIC.

“We were invited once to a tuba festival, and we were worried the booming music would scare them, but the reindeer loved it,” says reindeer farmer Cindy Murdoch, of Timberview Farm in Oregon.

2. THEY’VE GOT LEGS -- AND THEY KNOW HOW TO USE ‘EM.

Reindeer are exceptionally efficient at drawing the heat from their legs and moving it up to their bodies, meaning their gams can be as much as 45 degrees colder than their torsos.

3. THEY’RE PIGS.

“They will eat anything -- I mean anything!” Murdoch says. “It doesn’t have to have a taste.” In addition to their standard diet of moss, lichen, grasses, roots or deer chow, they happily eat “no hunting” signs, plastic bags and bailing twine. Unfortunately, like everyone else in America, their diet is killing them. These non-edible items often get stuck in one of a reindeer’s four stomachs.

4. THEY SUPPORT GENDER EQUALITY.

Reindeer are the only members of the deer family in which both males and females grow antlers. By this time of year most males have dropped their antlers, while the females retain theirs until spring.

5. THEY’RE VAIN.

Reindeer hate not having their antlers. After their antlers have dropped, they do their best to make sure humans and other animals don’t see them until the new set has grown in.

6. THEY’RE CHAMPION SWIMMERS.

We’re talking Olympic-level. It helps that they have an overcoat of hollow, air-filled hairs that makes them nearly unsinkable.

7. THEY HAVE LOUD TENDONS.

If you hear Christmas Eve clacking, it’s not the sound of hooves on your rooftop. (Reindeer glide through the air without touching down.) The distinct clicking noise comes from their long ankle tendons sliding over their leg bones as they move.

-- Elina.Shatkin@latimes.com

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REINDEER ROMP

WHERE: Los Angeles Zoo.

WHEN: 10 a.m to 4 p.m. today through Jan. 1.

PRICE: Free with zoo admission: adults, $10; children 2-12, $5

INFO: 323-644-4200; www.lazoo.org