Important please note:
The
following section of articles concerning reindeer is for interest only. I do not condone
the domestication of reindeer under any circumstances,
particularly the slaughter of reindeer for meat. References to
reindeer husbandry, the traditional reindeer herding and
their use as meat, clothing transport and similar issues
are of course included here as part of the information
concerning reindeer. I and many others of a similar
persuasion would like to see the exploitation of
reindeer for meat, skins, entertainment and as other
resources and uses consigned to history forever with a
future where reindeer and other domesticated animals are left to
live out the course of their lives unmolested. In short
this website supports the abolition of the exploitation of all
animals in all circumstances. Please see:
Animal Rights
This is page is part of a section concerning
Reindeer.
Click the links below to access pages on the following
topics
For ease of reading all quotations appear in a purple
font.
Reindeer General Information
The reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), which
means "to walk in single file" which is how reindeer
prefer to travel,
is also known in North America as the caribou, from the
native American word Mi'kmaq which means shoveller.
Caribou were once considered a separate species.
The history of reindeer In Europe is associated with
primitive man. The people of the upper Palaeolithic age
depended upon reindeer for food, clothing and tools,
such as those that feature on the picture on the left. although these people eat shell fish
grubs and vegetation, reindeer meat was the mainstay of
their diet. As you will read in the
Reindeer in Art
section reindeer featured in rock drawings and cave paintings such as
those found in Atamira in Spain and cave art featuring
reindeer on the walls of Font-de-Gaume
near Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil in the Dordogne
départment of south-west France, a cave
from the Magdalénien period, about 14,000 BC.
The population of Reindeer in Europe was so numorous
that this period in time has been called the
Reindeer Age.
Tools and implements of the reindeer age
Geography
In the main reindeer can be found in Northern Asia,
Europe, Siberia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland.
Reindeer, including
both
populations of resident and migratory animals,
are spread right across the northern hemisphere
in the region of the tundra, mountains and
woodland of the Arctic and Subarctic.
In the tundra the growth of tees is impeded by
the low temperatures and the short
growing season. This along with a
permanently frozen subsoil makes vegetation
sparse. In the main vegetation
Map
Showing present day distribution of
Reindeer
in the tundra consists of dwarf shrubs,sedges and grasses,
mosses, and lichens, the last three of which
provide grazing for reindeer.
Originally reindeer inhabited a wider range than
they do today including Scandinavia, Eastern
Europe, Russia, Mongolia, and northern China. At
one time reindeer were found in Canada, Alaska
and the northern conterminous USA from
Washington to Maine. Reindeer were still present
In the 19th century in southern Idaho
and were also found as far south as Nevada and
Tennessee in North America and Spain in Europe
during the late Pleistocene era. Reindeer also occurred naturally on
Sakhalin, Greenland, and probably even in
historical times in Ireland and also the main land UK
during the last
ice age. Wild reindeer have disappeared from
many areas within this large historical range,
especially from the southern parts, where they
have vanished almost everywhere. However in the
main reindeer are still numerous, with an
estimated population of over seven
million animals, though some of the subspecies are rare.
Today large populations of wild reindeer
are still found in Norway, Finland, Siberia,
Greenland, Alaska, and Canada.
*1)
Approximately 1 million reindeer live in
Alaska, and a comparable number live in northern
Canada. In Eurasia there are an estimated 5
million reindeer most are semi-domesticated. In
additon to the areas shown above in red there are a small
population of about 150 Reindeer in the
cairngorms in Scotland and, although few in
number, there are two distinct herds of reindeer
on the Island of South Georgia, introduced there
at the beginning of the twentieth century. The
Kerguelen Islands and East Iceland have small
populations of reindeer introduced to the former
location by the Norwegians.
Subspecies
There were originally nine subspecies of reindeer.
A subspecies is a variety, usually a geographically
isolated interbreeding organism, who evolve to adapt to their environment.
The East Greenland and Queen Charlotte island reindeer
are now extinct. The seven
remaining subspecies are:
With an estimated population of between 1.5 and
2 million animals this subspecies is found mainly in the
Canadian territories Nunavut and the Northwest
Territories and western Greenland. This subspecies is most
well known for their
massive migration each year from their winter home in
the forest to calving grounds in the tundra. In one
season they may travel the distance of
about 120 kms/746 miles.
This subspecies of reindeer has
a brown summer coat which in winter becomes much
lighter.
Peary Caribou (Rangifer
tarandus pearyi)
Found in the high Arctic
islands of Canada's Nunavut and Northwest
territories the Peary Caribou are the smallest
of the North American Caribou. Included in the
Canadian Governments endangered species list
their numbers have dwindled since the 1965
estimate of 25,845*
During
the winter the fur of the Peary Caribou is thick and
white and becomes shorter and darker, nearly slate-grey
during the summer.
Svalbard Reindeer (R. tarandus platyrhynchus)
Numbering about 10,000 the Svalbard
Reindeer is the smallest subspecies of reindeer, they
live on the high arctic Archipelago group of islands of
the same name which during the last Ice age were
connected to the mainland. After the end of the last Ice age the islands and the organisms that lived there including
reindeer become isolated.
The males are significantly larger than the females,
though the subspecies is small in comparison to other
subspecies. This is a phenomenon called insular dwarfism and may occur due to
environmental stress when an animal's gene pool is
limited to a very small environment as is the case with
these Island dwelling animals. Females are approximately
150 cm (59 in) in length and a weigh around 53 kg
(120 lb) in the spring and 70 kg (150 lb) in the autumn.
Males are approximately 160 cm (63 in) in length and
weigh around 65 kg (140 lb) in the spring and 90 kg
(200 lb) in the autumn. The reindeer from Svalbard are
also relatively short-legged and may have a shoulder
height of as little as 80 cm (31 in),*2)
Their coat is brown with a lighter shade on the
stomach, these colourings become lighter during the
winter months turning to a pale grey or yellowish
white. The Hunting of Svalbard Reindeer, responsible for
a depletion in their population, was banned in 1925 by
the Norwegian government.
Finnish Forest Reindeer (R.tarandus fennicus)
The
Finnish Forest Reindeer is found in the wild in
only two areas of the Fennoscandia peninsula of
Northern Europe, in Finnish/Russian Karelia, and
a small population in central south Finland.
This subspecies have the largest feet and
longest legs to adapt them to conditions of deep
snow. This subspecies of reindeer is one of the
largest, being approximately 180 to 220 cms in
length and weighing about 100kg for females, the
larger male weights about 150–250 kg.
The woodland caribou,
inhabits the boreal forests of Canada and far
northern contiguous United States, ranging from
Newfoundland and Labrador west and south to
Washington. A medium sized reindeer, the bulls
on average weigh about 180kg while the cows
weigh around 115kg.
Woodland Caribou are
migratory.
During the
summer their coats
which are long and thick are dark
brown fading to a
light grey colour during the winter. The hair round
their neck is a creamy white. Unfortunately the woodland
Caribou is endangered throughout central Canada. Once
their range included most of the Northern hemisphere. Human activities
such as logging and
mining, along with other intrusions of human development,
have had a detrimental impact on their environment.
Eurasian tundra (or mountain) reindeer (R. t.
tarandus)
European Reindeer
Originating in Eastern Siberia and Alaska this
subspecies includes both domestic and wild
reindeer. Eurasian tundra reindeer are found west
of the Bering Straits in the tundra and taiga
regions of Scandinavia.
Being particularly gregarious has made this
reindeer easy to domesticate, the domesticated
reindeer far outnumber the wild.
The Alaskan Caribou (Rt granti)
Grant's Caribou
The Alaskan Caribou as the name suggests lives
in Alaska. This subspecies of reindeer live in various
habitats, some may live as small groups in forests while
other congregate in large herds, the most well known of
which is the Western Arctic heard with an estimated
500,000 reindeer who annually migrate vast
distances to the tundra. These animals are the most
travelled of land animals and can travel as far as
5,000km each year
According to their type reindeer considerably vary in size
and colour.
However on average reindeer are about 4 feet tall(120cms)
at the shoulder and about six feet (180cms) in length and an
adult male may weigh about 92–210 kg (200–460 lb). In some species
of reindeer the females are slightly smaller as are also
domesticated reindeer and may weigh 79–120 kg
(170–260 lb. The coats of reindeer vary in
colour according to the season.
Reindeer have thick fur
which traps air, a vital asset for insulating the animal
from the bitter cold in the snow and ice as they
desperately look for food in temperatures as low as
minus 30°C. Their fur has special qualities
that help to insulate the animal against the extremity
of cold weather, maintaining their body temperature in
even in the severest cold. The hair is exceptionally
dense and consists of an outer coat of guard hairs.
These are long hollow hairs packed together at a density
of an amazing 5,000 hairs per square inch. In addition
to insulation the hallow guard hairs provide buoyancy
when the reindeer swims. Reindeer
also have a fine "wooly" undercoat with a density of
13,00 hairs per square inch which forms an efficient air
trap. So efficient is their thick coat that when
reindeer sit on the snow the snow does not melt as their
guard hairs prevent body heat from escaping and melting
the snow, this stops the reindeer from getting wet and
cold. Reindeer
faces are protected by the growth of facial hair which
protects the muzzle when they graze in the snow. Fur
growth varies between the different subspecies of
reindeer, for example the fur of Svalbard reindeer is
longer and denser than that of Norwegian reindeer and it
covers the ears, eyelids, snout, lips and feet much more
extensively.*3)
Reindeer have special bones in their nose which increases
the surface area of the nostrils so that the cold air they
inhale is warmed by their body before it gets to their
lungs.
When Reindeer walk they make a
clicking noise, which is made by the
tendons in their legs, this helps
them to locate each other either
during the night or when visibility
is reduced during the severe winter
blizzards.
Reindeer have only average
eyesight and locate food using their
keen sense of smell. An unusual
feature of reindeer is that they
have front teeth only on their
bottom jaw; there are molars on both
the top and bottom.
Unlike other species of deer where the female may be
called a doe or a hind, the male a stag or a buck while
the babies are called fawns, male Reindeer are called
bulls, the female are cows and the babies are calves.
Both
gender have antlers, which begin to grow within
weeks of being born, although they grow larger
in the males, their growth depends on sex hormones
and antlers are larger and more elaborate in
older males. However there are some exceptions and
in a few populations the females do not have
antlers. The largest antlers are produced by
caribou and Norwegian reindeer. Antlers, thought to be the fastest
growing living tissue, range in size amongst the
different subspecies from very small in the
northernmost subspecies to the large antlers in
some subspecies of bull reindeer which are,
after the moose, the second largest antlers of
any deer in existence today and may range in
growth to as much as 100 cm (39 in) in width and
135 cm (53 in) in beam length. Relative to body
size though they have the largest antlers of any
deer. Antlers are
not like horns which
are made of keratin, the same as our finger nails, and
other proteins surrounding a core of living bone. Horns
are never shed and continue growing throughout the
animal's life.
In contrast antlers are large branching appendages, no
two of which are the same, which are initially composed of cartilage that is
mineralized to become bone, antlers are shed and regrown every
year. Also Antlers grow from the tip unlike horns which
grow from the base.
Antlers may reach an incredible size
Antlers
may reach incredible sizes and each
set is unique to the individual as
fingerprints are to human beings.The
size of a reindeer's antlers
increases each year.
The main purpose of antlers is to assert social
dominance. Once antlers are shed even the largest
reindeer's social position drops in the pecking order
below even that of young reindeer with rudimentary
antlers. Antlers also serve as a tool for shovelling snow
which covers moss. This is the purpose of the branch,
present in both males and females, close to the base of
their antlers that projects forwards which functions
rather like a shovel.
Bulls and cows drop their antlers annually but at
different times of the year, the bulls by January and
cows by Spring retaining them until after calving, this
gives them an advantage over bull reindeer for food
resources which are limited.
The antlers of reindeer may grow
to enormous sizes determined by a combination of a
number of factors, genetic predisposition, age and
nutrition. The bulls have larger antlers than the cows.
The antlers grow to their largest extent at about
5 or 6 years of age. The largest antlers are
divided into three parts: the long main beam curves
gently backwards, there are two branches pointing
forwards, the smaller brow tine and the larger shovel.
Reindeer bulls begin growing their
antlers in January and February.
Antlers in
some varieties of reindeer, the Scandinavian variety for
instance fall off during
December for older males, while the antlers of young
males are shed during the early spring and for females
this does not occur until the summertime.
Towards the
end of August the bone begins to harden as the blood
stops flowing through the antlers. At this time reindeer
will begin to vigorously rub off the velvet, this can
look very bloody for a couple of days, it can take
rutting bulls about twenty four hours to remove it all.
The females retain their antlers longer until March or
April, after which time their antlers immediately begin
to grow again. This gives them an advantage over the
winter period as they than become dominant and better
equipped to ensure that they and their calves get the
best of the food during this time when
food is not so readily available. The calves loose their
antlers about the same time as the females.
Antlers are an
extension of the skull from permanent bones called
pedicles. When antlers begin to grow they are soft and
flexible, nourished by a vascular covering called
velvet, a mass of blood and marrow which in bull
reindeer is shed in August. With veins near to
the surface the antlers feel warm to the touch. Nerves
grow at the same rate as the antlers. Reindeer are extremely sensitive if touched
while they are in velvet. Bull antler hardens to
bone in June while for cows this transformation occurs in
July. Velvet can grow at up to an amazing 2cm each day,
representing the fastest rate of organ growth in the
animal kingdom. Antlers are the only mammalian appendage
capable of regenerate each year with all tissues blood
vessels growing at the same rate. This phenomenon has
resulted in scientific interest concerning the processes
involved in the growth of antlers and its possible
medical potential, it is hoped that the study of antler
growth may lead to an understanding of how cancer occurs
and also in the development of medical applications for
tissue repair and the healing of wounds. However the
mechanisms of this process are not as yet fully
understood.
Reindeer are seasonal
breeding animals. Bulls begin to breed from as early as one
and a half years of age. The males use their
antlers in a ritualized combative way during the rutting
or breeding season to gain control of a harem of from 5
to 15 females. Two males will lock antlers, which
have now grown to their largest extent for the breeding
season, and try
to push each other, although this can progress to real
fighting there are few instances of fatalities. Reindeer
bulls do not eat much during the rut and as a
consequence become thin and may lose up to 1/3 of their
body weight and as a consequence are exhausted.
It is not surprising that studies have shown that male
reindeer suffer greater mortality than females
The rut lasts three or four weeks and
depending on location may begin in late September to
early November. Shortly after the rut the
antlers are shed.
In regions were deer become calcium
deficient as a result of poor soils the antlers may be
chewed in order to derive necessary nutrition
Females leave
the herd as the time to give birth draws near to select
a secluded spot where she can give birth, or calve,
returning to the same location each year. The calf is
born between late May and early June. Within only
minutes of being born the baby is able to stand and
weighs between about 11-20 pounds 4 to 9 kilograms and will suckle for five to
six months. A day-old calf can outrun a grown
man.
Reindeer
have usually only one off-spring.
Gestation is about 240 days.
Bulls become
solitary and split apart from the group for summer
forage returning for the rut, while the
remaining herd consists mostly of females, usually a
matriarchy.
Reindeer are
ruminants, other examples are sheep, cattle, goats and
giraffe. Ruminants are usually horned mammals, who are
even toed, chew the cud and have four stomachs or more
accurately a stomach that is divided into four
compartments. Reindeer are herbivores, their diet
consists of grass, moss and lichen; tough fibrous
plants that contain cellulose which needs a lot of
digesting. The process of rumination involves the
re-chewing of the food that has previously
fermented in the fore-pouches of their stomach. They spend most of their
day grazing. Reindeer are veracious eaters and may
consume as much as twelve pounds of vegetation each day.
If the vegetation is covered by snow they will scrape
the snow away with their hooves. However in times of
severe shortage during the long dark and bitterly cold
winter reindeer may become carnivorous to a small degree. Their depleted
diet results in cravings, particularly for salt. At such
times of deprivation reindeer may eat meat or fish
discarded by man or the remains of dead animals
including those of other reindeer. These starving
animals have even been known to hunt and kill lemmings
and may eat birds and or their eggs. Also common is the
gnawing of bones and the ingesting of bird droppings and
the urine of other animals, a particular favourite is
human urine and to a lesser extent that of dogs. To do
so Reindeer eat the snow which has been wetted by urine.
This craving has been exploited by hunters who use urine
as bait and by herders as a means of controlling the
herd.
An even more
peculiar part of the reindeer diet are Magic
mushrooms which are found in pine and birch woods of
western North America, Northern Europe, and Asia. Towards the end of the summer mushrooms high
in protein, phosphorus, potassium and vitamin
content become available providing reindeer with a rich
food source before the approach of the arduous winter.
It is not known if reindeer are effected by the
hallucinogenic properties of these mushrooms, they
however search for them with frantic enthusiasm
erratically altering their movements to do so using
their highly developed sense of smell to locate them
frantically scrapping away an early fall snow with their
hooves.
Recently, at
least according to several reports in the media just
before Christmas eve 2010,
scientists have claimed that reindeer do in fact get
high on magic mushrooms and may seek them out to
alleviate the winter boredom. Andrew Hayes Retired
Pharmaceutical Journal
deputy editor claimed that reindeer deliberately
seek out magic mushrooms: ‘They
have a desire to experience altered states of
consciousness,’
and search for them to
‘escape the
monotony of dreary long winters’.
He further
claimed the herdsmen drink
reindeer urine to benefit
from the effects themselves
*4)
This has resulted in a custom amongst the Sami reindeer
herders to feed their animals with fly agaric and
than collecting and drinking their urine to
produce a "high" similar to that of LSD.
Watch a
BBC Video about reindeer and the magic mushroom Fly agaric
The hooves of
Reindeer are large and sharp thus enabling them to
travel over long distances and over terrain covered by
ice and snow, the broad hooves acting rather like snow
shoes which also help to propel the animal as he swims,
it may surprise you to learn that they are very good
swimmers. The hooves of reindeer adapt to
accommodate the change in season; in summer when their
grazing ground becomes soft and wet their hooves
take on a sponge like appearance, this results in extra
traction which enables them to cover a larger area of
grazing ground more quickly and efficiently. During the
winter season the hoof pads shrink, the contraction and
tightening exposes the outer rim which enables them to
cut into the snow helping them to remain firm on the
slippery surface.
Reindeer are
excellent runners and can reach speeds of fifty miles
per hour when in a state of stress, during normal
conditions and speeds reindeer may cover thirty miles a
day. Reindeer are the prey of wolves and coyote, bears may
prey on new born calves because they cannot run as fast.
The senses of
hearing and sight are not well developed in reindeer
however to compensate the sense of smell in reindeer is
extremely keen and heavily relied upon to find food and avoid
danger.
Reindeer make
a variety of vocalisations including snorting when
alarmed, a bawl and guttural grunts. Rutting males make
a grunting roar to intimidate rivals and have large
pouches of skin under their throats which increase the
volume.
During the
wintertime reindeer eat snow or lick frozen water, this
is of course most likely a necessity as with the
extremity of temperatures flowing water is unlikely to
be readily available.
In addition to the above references other information was sourced from The Real Rudolph: A
Natural History of the Reindeer by Tilly Smith
Important please note:
I am not an
animal expert of any kind just your average person who
loves animals, all animals, and feels deeply about the
plight of many of our fellow creatures. Neither am I a
writer, or any other expert. Therefore please keep in
mind that the information included in this website has
been researched to the best of my ability and any
misinformation is quite by accident but of course
possible.
