Reindeers in the Arctic region can get drunk on these mushrooms!

This amusing behaviour of reindeers is seen mainly in the Arctic and subarctic regions of Siberia and Northern Europe, including Lapland and Scandinavia. The locals here often encounter reindeers sniffing through thick layers of snow, gulping the mushrooms, and behaving erratically.

While not all members of the herd dine on this unique fungi, a significant number do, especially in winters when food is scarce. The mushrooms supposedly help the reindeers relax and escape the monotony that comes with the harsh weather.

These red mushrooms contain psychoactive compounds like muscimol and ibotenic acid, which can affect brain function and an animal’s perception. These are believed to be the root cause of the cervid’s erraticity. While these mushrooms are poisonous for humans, reindeers can easily digest them, thanks to their four-chambered stomach, which weeds out the toxins.

As for the tendency to get high, there isn’t a peer-reviewed scientific paper on the subject. Nonetheless, it is well established, thanks to indigenous oral histories and traditions, historical records of European explorers and naturalists, and folkloric evidence. To put it in other words, the affinity of reindeer to get high on shrooms is an ethnographic and historical analysis.

Were Santa Claus’ reindeer actually flying ‘high’?

Some communities used to drink the urine of reindeers under the influence of the mushrooms, to get high themselves (Source: Unsplash)

For several years, Christmas Eve at Harvard University held special gatherings. Brilliant minds would gather to listen to Dr Donald Pfister share his version of the festival. Word was he had an interesting theory: Santa’s reindeers never flew; the bearded man was just high on agaric mushrooms, along with his ride!

Pfister would talk about the Arctic culture, wherein the communities selected a spiritual leader called a Shaman, who would perform rituals to seek a state of trance and heal the sick. They used to wear red and white robes (rings a bell?).

Once the shamans started using Amanita muscaria for their rituals, it didn’t take them long to figure out their reindeers’ drunken behavior after consuming the shrooms. Wanting to have the psychedelic experience themselves, the spiritual leaders started drinking the reindeers’ urine to get high.

“This idea [is] that reindeer go berserk because they’re eating Amanita muscaria,” Pfister said. “Reindeers flying—are they flying, or are your senses telling you they’re flying because you’re hallucinating?”

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