Why Rudolph Has A Red Nose

image credit: Courtney Mault

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional male reindeer with a glowing red nose.In 1939, illustrator and children's book author Robert May created Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. In the coming decades, Rudolph's song and stop-motion TV special cemented him in the canon of cherished Christmas lore.

Of course, the story was rooted in myth. But there's actually more truth to it than most of us realize. A fraction of reindeer - the species of deer scientifically known as Rangifer tarandus, native to Arctic regions in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Russia and Scandinavia - actually do have noses colored with a distinctive red hue.