Reindeer E-Book

Tilly Smith

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 159

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

In this enchanting book, self-confessed reindeer geek Tilly Smith leads the reader through the extraordinary natural history of the reindeer with charming anecdotes about her own Scottish herd. From their flat 'clown-like' hooves to their warm furry noses and majestic antlers, fall in love with nature's most adaptable arctic mammal.

Leseprobe

To our grandchildren Hamish and Marley.The future is with the young.

First published as The Real Rudolph: A Natural History of the Reindeer, 2006.

A fully revised and updated edition first published, 2018

This paperback edition first published, 2022

The History Press

97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Tilly Smith, 2006, 2018, 2022

Illustrations by Martin Latham © The History Press, 2018, 2022

The right of Tilly Smith to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 75099 022 6

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ Books Limited, Padstow, Cornwall.

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

Preface

1      Winter

2      Reindeer and Caribou

3      Spring

4      Mr Utsi

5      Summer

6      Ethel Lindgren and her ‘Crocodile Dundee’

7      Autumn

8      The Smiths

9      Taming the Wild

10      Reindeer: The Arctic’s Farmed Animal

11      A Herd of Individuals

12      Association of World Reindeer Herders

13      Incredible Journeys

14      Swedish Lapland

15      The Frozen North

Cairngorm Reindeer Herd

Reindeer Family Tree

PREFACE

IAM A SELF-CONFESSED reindeer geek. I have a house full of reindeer photos, paintings, antlers, skins, books, chopping boards and other reindeer memorabilia I have collected. Many of my foreign holidays have been ‘busman’s holidays’ to reindeer herding regions and barely a day goes by when I am not doing something related to reindeer. I am also lucky enough to be co-owner of Britain’s only free-living herd of reindeer – the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd.

My interest in deer and subsequent ‘love’ of reindeer brought me to work as a volunteer with the Cairngorm reindeer in the summer of 1981. I never looked back – thirty-seven years on I am still in my first job (I eventually got paid!) and have enjoyed every minute of it. I regard myself as an extremely lucky person whose passion is their daily work.

So when I was asked to write this book I was delighted to accept and confident I had the credentials. But writing books takes time and so I am immensely grateful to my family and work colleagues who have kept the ark afloat while I pontificate about reindeer.

To avoid confusion it is important to point out right away that reindeer and caribou are interchangeable names for the animal species Rangifer tarandus. Throughout the book both names are used depending on the region of the world I am referring to. In Alaska and Canada, caribou is the commonly used term and in the Scandinavian countries and Russia the same animals are called reindeer.

THE WEATHER FORECAST for the Cairngorm mountain area, Britain’s only sub-Arctic habitat in the UK, is ‘winds gusting 100 miles per hour, serious wind chill factor and arduous walking conditions’. These are severe winter conditions with drifting snow, and the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue team have been called out to look for two lost hill walkers; their prospects are not good.

While a full-blown search is being mustered to find the missing walkers, the Cairngorm reindeer are out there too, probably lying down, chewing the cud and feeling quite at home as they wait for the wind to abate. Their antlers will be frosted with blown snow, any snow lying on their backs will easily shake off when they stand up and their bed of snow is a comfortable one. In Alaska, one of the countries where caribou are naturally found, they say there are only two seasons, ‘snow’ and ‘no snow’, and caribou thrive there. They are truly Arctic animals, totally at home in the coldest places in the world.

From the tips of their noses to the bottom of their feet, reindeer are covered in hair. In addition, the quality and density of a reindeer’s coat are un-rivalled in their suitability for this climate. The coat is made of two types of hair. Hollow guard hairs, composed of a matrix of air-filled cells, are anything up to 4–5cm long and are densely packed. The hair root itself is thin but outside the skin the guard hair expands immensely. Below this is a fine woolly coat, not air-filled but much denser. The combination and density of the two types of hair provides the reindeer with fantastic insulation. In fact, their coat can be likened to an extremely high-tog-value duvet filled with hollow fill or feather down, air of course being one of the best forms of insulation.

The two-layered coat of reindeer is incredibly dense: 670 hairs per cm2 for the longer hollow hair and 2,000 hairs per cm2 for the woolly undercoat. In the past reindeer hair was used extensively for stuffing upholstery and even spun with wool to make clothing. Unlike sheep’s wool, the staple of reindeer hair is not long enough to be spun on its own.

They are so well insulated that reindeer can lie on snow without melting it, so a layer of snow on the ground provides a comfortable dry bed. Also, snow that lands on their backs doesn’t melt – it remains frozen and can itself add to the insulation value. A reindeer is like an enormous thermos flask wandering around, its coat letting no heat out and no cold in.

Boots made out of reindeer skin were the only footwear that kept my feet warm in –35°C Swedish Lapland. And they weren’t any old reindeer boots either but Russian ones, which have two layers of reindeer skin, with hair facing in the way and out. With no hard sole, I felt as though I was walking about on the snow with my slippers on, but in this dry, cold environment reindeer skin boots are the business.

It was the Jokkmokk Winter Market, a traditional festival that takes place in February every year and we were at the 300th one. Jokkmokk is situated right on the Arctic Circle and this small town is in the middle of Swedish Lapland. The market is a great celebration of the Sami culture and their reindeer, and is a must for any reindeer enthusiast, as long as you are happy to embrace reindeer alive and dead. The sleepy town is transformed into rows and rows of stalls selling anything from reindeer meat to outdoor clothing. There is reindeer racing and displays of Duodji, a meticulous and incredibly expensive Sami handicraft in which reindeer antler has the most intricate patterns and designs skilfully scored onto the surface. The decorated antlers make beautiful knife handles and they are exquisite. But the highlight of each day is the reindeer parade. A train of white reindeer, each one pulling a traditional Pulka (a boat-shaped sledge) and led by a Sami reindeer herder in full dress, from his ornate hat to his reindeer skin boots with turned-up toes. As the procession walks through the town, the crowds gather to get the best view; it is a wonderful display of Sami tradition and their docile Arctic animals.

Away from the market in the surrounding forests there are reindeer everywhere, searching out an existence by digging down through the deep snow in search of food. Often all you can see are reindeer bottoms as they are head first in the deep snow, their large hooves shovelling down to the vegetation below. Winter offers an extremely limited menu; reindeer have to resort to an impoverished diet, which for the vast majority means lichens. Lichens are very interesting as they actually consist of two different organisms in a symbiotic relationship. The main body is made up of a fungus, which grows like other fungi by living on a supply of organic food. Within the fungus live unicellular algae, which contain chlorophyll and grow by the process of photosynthesis. The fungal component and the algae all live on the food manufactured by the algae. Poor in protein but rich in carbohydrate, lichens provide reindeer and caribou with instant energy but an overall negative nitrogen balance. In other words, reindeer survive but don’t grow while on this lichen diet, steadily losing condition over the winter.

In some areas lichen will comprise as much as 80 per cent of the reindeer’s total winter diet. The lichens generally preferred by reindeer are the mats of ground lichens, particularly fruticose lichens, including Alectoria, Cetraria, Cladonia and Stereocaulon.

Their hair extends right down to their lips – an extremely important requirement in Arctic conditions and no doubt hardened polar explorers grow beards for the same reason. Breathing out warm air into sub-zero conditions creates a build-up of frost on any cold wet surface, like a wet nose. By having a completely hairy muzzle reindeer avoid this and instead can go about their everyday business with warm, dry noses.

Reindeer and caribou are not alone in eating lichens. Black-tailed deer and Chinese musk deer also feed on them, along with spruce grouse and wild turkeys.

Extremities such as the legs are more vulnerable to heat loss. However, a specialised arrangement of blood vessels going to and from the legs helps to reduce this problem. Warm blood flowing to the legs passes closely by the cold blood returning from the legs. This counter-current system allows heat and cold exchange between the two so that the warm blood going to the legs is cooled and cool blood leaving the legs is warmed, therefore reducing heat loss from the legs.

A similar heat-exchange system operates in the nasal passages of the reindeer. They have particularly complicated nostrils with bone and cartilage designed like a ‘rolled scroll’. This, combined with many fine, short hairs, creates a highly effective method of retaining heat and water. By greatly increasing the surface area of the nostrils, blood can warm the cold incoming air. This enables the water in the air to condense and it then trickles back into special folds, which direct it to the back of the nose and into the throat. This nasal heat exchange protects the reindeer from heat and water loss when they breathe in the cold. As the warmed air then travels down the windpipe to the lungs the neck is kept warm by the long hollow hairs or ‘beard’ below the neck.

Swedish scientists have used thermal imaging cameras to show how the main body of the reindeer is almost ‘invisible’ with minimal heat loss from the legs. However, they were surprised how their noses glowed! This is due to a high concentration of blood vessels keeping the nose and lips warm and sensitive, presumably so they can detect what they are actually eating through the thick layers of snow. I suspect a nose numb with cold would be as ineffective as numb fingers!

There is an old Russian saying: ‘There is no such thing as bad weather, merely unsuitable clothing’ – a great phrase that sums up reindeer in winter.

REINDEER AND CARIBOU (Rangifer tarandus) are the only Arctic-living species in the deer family (Cervidae), a group that includes at least forty different species of deer spread across the world and occupying a vast range of ecological niches. The smallest member of the family is the Pudu (Pudu mephistophiles and Pudu puda), which frequents the forested slopes of the Andes, while the largest is the moose (Alces alces), which inhabits the forests and marshlands of northern Europe, Siberia, Canada, Alaska and a few states in North America.

Found in the tundra, mountains and woodlands of the Arctic and sub-Arctic areas of the northern hemisphere, reindeer are in many ways unique. Many herds migrate further than any other deer species: as much as 1,000km between their summer and winter range is not uncommon. They are often highly gregarious, forming huge herds of many thousands, and survive primarily on lichens in the winter. Their antlers are asymmetric and are grown by both sexes, including calves from just a few weeks old. They are also the only deer species where there is a wild and domesticated form.

Reindeer are quite heavily built and stocky, compared to other deer. Red deer portrayed by Victorian artist Landseer as ‘The Monarch of the Glen’ are slim, elegant and have a rather proud posture, holding their heads high, with long legs and pointed hooves. Reindeer carry their heads very low to the ground; with a chunky profile, thick legs, short hairy ears and flat feet, they have an ungainly look about them. But by having a low body-to-surface area ratio reindeer lose relatively less heat than their cousins.

Compared with all of the other species of deer, reindeer and caribou have relatively large feet for the size of their bodies. Their hooves are concave with sharp edges and their back dew claws are also large. Both the dew claws and the main cloven hooves can be spread far apart. Splayed hooves spread the weight of the reindeer across a larger surface area, and so the weight load on the ground from individual feet is low. In their travels reindeer regularly encounter soft, deep snow and wet, boggy ground at different times of year, so spreading their weight to allow them to travel with little effort is vitally important.

The mature bulls grow big ‘showy’ antlers, the largest among the deer species relative to body size, whereas the cows grow smaller more practical antlers, which give them considerable status in the herd during winter. Supremely adapted to their hostile environment, reindeer are a classic Ice Age mammal and one of the few large mammals to survive the rise in temperature after the last Ice Age, 11,000 years ago. Today, reindeer range over one-fifth of the earth’s surface and the total world population is approximately 6 million. This figure includes all wild and domesticated reindeer. The name reindeer is derived from the Old Norse word hrein, meaning reindeer, while in North America caribou is derived from the Micmac Indian word Xalibu, meaning ‘digger of snow’.

In 2015, wild reindeer were categorised as Vulnerable A2a by the IUCN Redlist due to a 40 per cent decline in their overall numbers across their whole range, which is approximately 3 million reindeer.

Tuktu is the Inuit name for caribou, but another school of thought believes that reindeer are named after the Lappish word ‘reino’ meaning calf.

Without getting caught up in lots of taxonomic classifications of reindeer and caribou, basically there are three different ‘types’: the continental or tundra group, which are highly sociable migratory herds; the more secretive boreal forest dwellers and mountain reindeer; and finally the diminutive high-Arctic survivors.

As a general rule, the larger the herd size, the further the animals have to migrate between their summer and winter range. The Barren Ground caribou of Arctic Canada are famous for the annual mass migration: from winter in the northern boreal forest, to traditional spring calving grounds on the tundra – a distance of 1,000km. The females will travel an average of 50km a day to reach the calving grounds close to the Arctic Ocean. A short intense rut ensures all the calves (which will be many thousands) are born within a few weeks – a ploy to saturate the area with vulnerable young and so reduce the impact of predation. The status of these large migrating herds is relatively secure in terms of sheer numbers; however, certain herds have had their calving and grazing areas hugely compromised by industrial development and their traditional migration routes have been interrupted by enormous pipelines servicing the exploitation of oil and gas.

Broadly speaking, the migrating reindeer make up about 56 per cent, mountain reindeer 19 per cent, forest reindeer 14 per cent and high-arctic island reindeer 11 per cent. This current diversity came about through large-scale changes in distribution as continental glaciations advanced and retreated during the Pleistocene epoch, resulting in local adaptations of populations.

The North American woodland caribou are found in the northern boreal forest, which stretches from British Columbia to Newfoundland. This forest dweller tends to live close to or in the forest the whole year round, moves around in small groups and does not undertake vast seasonal movements typical of the tundra caribou. Sometimes known as ‘the grey ghosts of the forest’, woodland caribou can be very secretive and difficult to find. They generally live in small, scattered groups moving continuously through the forested areas. They are extremely shy. Females of the woodland-living caribou often have very small antlers, and a high proportion of the female Newfoundland caribou are actually antlerless. Because of their more solitary nature, woodland caribou do not need to compete for food as intensely in the wintertime and so it is felt that lack of competition means the females do not need to invest in growing antlers to be able to survive in the winter.

Another woodland dweller is the mountain caribou, which, by nature of their environment, make short annual excursions up into the mountains for the summer and travel back down for the winter. Their migrations are never usually longer than 50km, with an elevation change of 300m. These are some of the largest caribou in the world in terms of body size and antlers.

The high-Arctic reindeer are today composed of three island-living sub-species. The Svalbard reindeer is the smallest of all reindeer with a distinctive short face, short legs and a long, thick winter coat. Geographically isolated on the high-Arctic islands of Spitzbergen for some 20,000 years, today’s population numbers about 10,000. These reindeer live in the most nutritionally demanding conditions and experience great fluctuations in climate throughout the year. They do not undergo any form of migration and they have no natural predator, hence the short legs. Overhunting by man during the early part of the twentieth century undoubtedly led to an uncertain future for the Svalbard reindeer. However, when the Norwegians took over the ownership of Spitzbergen they implemented a ban on hunting in 1925. This has secured the population for the foreseeable future.

Off the north coast of Russia in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago there is another distinct sub-species: Novozeml’sk reindeer. Like the Svalbard reindeer they have had a chequered history of overhunting but in recent years the population has stabilised at 10–15,000. Reindeer from these high-Arctic islands have an incredibly short growing season of about eight weeks and in this time the reindeer have to do all their maturing, growing of antlers and laying down of fat reserves. However, one bonus is the lack of mosquitoes, which torment the mainland species.