Reindeer stand guard as Santa Claus robs the California Academy of Sciences. Ha! No, not really. Actually: A pair of live reindeer have taken residence at the CAS's east garden as part of their Reindeer Rendezvous exhibit. Entomologist Dave Kavanaugh, pictured here dressed as Mr Claus, poses for reporters as an unnamed female reindeer, foreground, and Miles, a male reindeer, are shown on the Living Roof at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

The female deer will be named via a naming contest. It's all part of of the Academy's holiday program that will end January 16, 2012.

They've also got a slew of holiday-themed events, which, according to SF Citizen, including indoor snow flurries (twice an hour!), a snowman theater (two shows on the science of snow inside a dome that looks like a snowdude), a spice forest, and mounted specimens of the birds featured in "The Twelve Days of Christmas," including swans, geese, colly birds, hens, doves, and of course, a partridge in a pear tree.

California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Drive (Golden Gate Park, S.F.)