Reindeer Blog

(Map shows the mining claims in Kvalsund, an area important to migratory reindeer husbandry in Northern Norway, source: NGU) According to an article on TV2, one of the largest networks in Norway, Finnmark is sitting on a potential ‘treasure trove’ of over 1 billion NOK of valuable minerals and including cooper, gold, iron ore and [...]

In northern Norway, summer pastures for reindeer are often located on the coastal islands of Finnmark and Troms counties. Traditionally, reindeer swim across from the mainland to the islands but with increasing pasture losses and migratory route fragmentation, since the early 1970s, many herders use a reindeer ‘ferry’ to transport reindeer over distances that have [...]

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

That might sound obvious to readers of this blog, however if a message is worth saying, it worth repeating and often it is more important who actually says the message.. Stein Mathisen, the head of Innovation Norway, (a state agency with 700 employees that was set up to make nationwide industrial development profitable to both [...]

 (Pic: NRK) Wolves have been reported in both Finnmark and the Kola Peninsula in two seperate events this week.  RIA Novosti  reported that a pack of wolves has mauled to death a unique herd of reindeer near the northwestern Russian city of Murmansk. The attack occurred at a reindeer farm owned by a local Sami community [...]

At this time of year, large migrations of reindeer are underway in northern Norway. This means the crossing of roads, several of which are busy and driving conditions at this time of year are challenging. There have been several accounts of reindeer being hit by cars, which is nearly always fatal to reindeer.

(Pic. Finnmark Dagblad) Today the Supreme court in Norway will hear the question as to how best to kill a reindeer, as reported in Finnmark Dagblad.

The ongoing discussion between reindeer herders and farmers in the Alta region specifically (but elsewhere too) is again in the media. A former state secretary with responsibility for reindeer husbandry

(Pic – Johan Mathis Gaup) NRK has been full of a story this week that is just south of Kautokeino / Guovdageaidnu. This is the time of year that reindeer herds are migrated back to the interior and their winter pastures, as the temperature drops. Two large herds have become mixed together – in total [...]

So said reindeer herder Johan Mikkel Haetta as he complained that the bottom has fallen out of the reindeer antler market. Used in the large market in the Far East for aphrodisiacs, reindeer antlers have been an important supplemental source of income for reindeer herders (especially in parts of Russia). The availability of synthetic aphrodisiacs [...]