Reindeer prepare for bad winters by building fat reserves instead of investing in calves
Bård-Jørgen Bårdsen at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research in Tromsø defended earlier this year his doctoral thesis: “Risk-sensitive reproductive strategies: the effect of environmental unpredictability” for the degree of PhD. The thesis explains how reindeer can handle negative climatic variations wintertime by changing their behavior.
Build fat reserves.
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Climate and climate change affects reproduction and survival of all living organisms.
This thesis includes several experiments where winter conditions were improved or worsened by manipulating access to feed to deer females.
- A reduction in winter conditions led to females next summer reduced investment in calf, and instead concentrated on building up body reserves, “explains Bård-Jørgen Bårdsen.
A similar improvement in winter conditions, however, had to take place over several years before the females were willing to increase their reproductive investment.
Larger females, but fewer calves
This study shows that reindeer have developed a risk-sensitive investment strategy in which females build fat reserves based on what kind of winter they expect to come.
- Increased rainfall and milder winters in Finnmark will in line with these studies in future provide significantly lower reindeer numbers and larger animals with low willingness to invest in calf production, Bårdsen says.
However, one reindeer herder interviewed by NRK Sami Radio, was sceptical to towards this research.
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