Reindeer Blog

TROMSO, Norway (Reuters) – Indigenous Sami peoples in the Arctic may have found a way to help their reindeer herds cope with climate change: more castration. Research by Sami experts shows that sterilized males can grow larger and so are better at digging for food — as Arctic temperatures vary more, thawing snow often refreezes [...]

In a long interview with the newspaper Vedomosti, the  new (ish) Kola Peninsula regional Governor Dmitry Dmitriyenko said that his administration plans to establish 100-200 km wide zones for reindeer herds. This will help raise productivity, the governor argues. Today, reindeer herds migrate over major parts of the peninsula and unlike reindeer husbandry in the [...]

In a billowing cloud of white, Russia’s Arctic herders drive thousands of panting and wild-eyed reindeer through the knee-deep snow to the first slaughter this year. But warm winters in recent years have forced herders here in the far northern Kola Peninsula to delay for months the rounding up of their reindeer from the vast [...]

Russian scientists have doubts over whether global warming is here to stay and whether it’s man made. But for the Saami in Russia’s north, the mild winters already pose a threat to their traditional way of life. All around the Arctic, the effects of a temperature rise are visible, and native inhabitants of the tundras in [...]

by Catherine Marciano.  JARFJORD, Norway (AFP) – On Norway’s border with Russia, the consequences of climate change are affecting the reindeer population as rising temperatures hit food stocks and industry growth eats into vital grazing land. “Over the past three years, I’ve had to give some hay to my 800 reindeer during the coldest months. It’s more [...]

The Board of the University of the Arctic (UArctic) has approved the establishment of UArctic Institute for Circumpolar Reindeer Husbandry, as a result of the International Polar Year (IPY) project and the IPY EALÁT project.

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. www.nrk.no/sami

The state Swedish television network SVT recently released a 6 part documentary that is a tour of various peoples and places in the Arctic that are already being affected by climate change, with a Swedish Sami host. While a number of such documentaries are being made these days, what marks this one out is its [...]

(Pic & Story NPI) In what researchers described as an extremely rare event, a polar bear has killed a reindeer on the islands of Svalbard late last year. According to a report from the Norwegian Polar Institute. The Polar Bear, a female, is one with a satellite transmitter attached, allowing researchers to monitor the bears [...]

The major US TV network was in Kautokeino / Guovdageaidnu, Norway recently, making a feature on reindeer husbandry and climate change. They interviewed the EALAT project (IPY endorsed Reindeer Herding Vulnerability Network Study) leader Ole Henrik Magga and have just aired the 2’50 video news piece. You can watch the video here