South Sami Reindeer Herders in Norway Under Pressure
(Pic - Torill Kolbu) There was an interesting interview with south Sami reindeer herder Jon Anders Mortensson in Ostlendingen today. Mortensson herding area is the Elgå reindeer district in the mountainous region of southern Norway. In this region there are six herding families, in all about 35 people, herding around 3000 reindeer.
Mortensson stressed the importance of the intergenerational transfer of knowledge and that older herders don’t retire, rather play a critical role in educating the future generations.
We cannot survive with these big losses to predators, year after year. It makes me question more whether it is appropriate that my children become full time reindeer herders. Do they have a profession in the future, or will they get an education in another occupation? These questions and thoughts arise ever more frequently in my head
Mortensson gave an overview of the reindeer year- starting with calving in higher ground in the spring, after which calves follow their mothers and eat new green vegetation in lower areas. As biting insects increase, reindeer again head for higher ground and at this time, reindeer are gathered and ‘earmarked’ to show ownership. After summer comes ‘mushroom madness’, when reindeer go into ‘rapture’ for mushrooms. The late fall is time for another gathering for slaughter. In the new year, reindeer are moved to the winter pastures and then on to spring calving again.
Mortensson is concerned about the future of the livelihood and whether future generations of Sami reindeer herders in this region. He singled out losses to predators as being the biggest problem in their region. Each spring around 2000 calves are born and nearly 400 are lost -
70-80 percent of all the dead reindeer are caused by predators. In addition, there are some still-born calves and some die as a result of stress due to the activity and traffic in the calving area. Calving is a very sensitive time for us. In that time, we want the least amount of interference around the reindeer.
