They say tests on reindeer showed that the animal does respond to UV stimuli, unlike humans.

The ability might enable them to pick out food and predators in the “UV-rich” Arctic atmosphere, and to retain visibility in low light.

Details are published in the The Journal of Experimental Biology.

Seeing predators

UV light is invisible to humans. It has a wavelength which is shorter (and more energised) than “visible” light, ranging from 400 nanometres down to 10nm in wavelength.

The researchers first established that UV light was able to pass through the lens and cornea of the reindeer eye by firing light through a dissected sample. The tests showed that light down to a wavelength of about 350nm passed into the eye.

They then sought to prove that the animals could “see” the light, by testing the electrical response of the retina of anaesthetised reindeer to UV light.

“We used what is called an ERG (electroretinography), whereby we record the electrical response to light by the retina by putting a little piece of gold foil on the inside of the eyelid,” co-author Professor Glen Jeffery of University College London told BBC News.

The tests showed that photoreceptor cells or “cones” in the retina did respond to UV light.

“If you’re a bumblebee, you wouldn’t think much of what this animal is doing because it’s seeing in what’s called ‘near UV’ (about 320 to 400nm), but that’s still very high energy stuff.”

The researchers believe UV vision could enable the reindeer to distinguish food and predators in the “white-out” of the Arctic winter and the twilight of spring and autumn.

Lichen, on which the animal feeds, would appear black to reindeer eyes, they say, because it absorbs UV light. The animal’s traditional predator, wolves, would also appear darker against the snow, as their fur absorbs UV light.

Urine in the snow would also be more discernable in UV vision, which might alert reindeer to the scent of predators or other reindeer.

Neither did the animal appear to suffer any damage as a result of seeing in UV, say the researchers, or suffer the “snow blindness” humans can experience in the UV-rich Arctic environment.

Polar vision

Professor Lars Chittka of Queen Mary University London, who has explored the UV capabilities of bees, said the study showed what we call the “visible” spectrum did not apply to most of the animal kingdom.

“It’s further evidence that UV sensitivity across animals is the rule rather than the exception, and that humans and some other mammals are actually a minority in not having UV sensitivity,” he said.

Professor Chittka was not surprised the UV light appeared to do no damage to the reindeer retina. He said the tests suggested the eye would only admit lower-frequency UV light (“UV-A light”) rather than more damaging higher-frequency light (“UV-B”).

Further modelling and behavioural tests would also be needed to verify that reindeer’s apparent capacity to detect UV light really did result in “better detection of predators and arctic lichens”, he said.

The same research team which conducted the reindeer tests will soon repeat the same experiments on seals to see whether they can see into the UV region. Professor Jeffery believes many Arctic animals are likely to have the capacity.

“There’s no evidence that Arctic foxes or polar bears suffer from snow blindness, so I bet you that most of the Arctic animals up there are seeing into UV.”

Download the issue here.

According to Helena Omma, the leader of the Saminuorra the youth perspective is often missing in these kinds of processes, so there is a need for the youth to explain their own lives with their own words and  how this process affects them and how they believe that they have a future in reindeer husbandry in Härjedalen.

Visit the blog here (in Swedish)

Read the press release from the Saami Council about the case here on the Reindeer Portal.

Regular operation of the 572 km long railroad to its terminal point – the Karskaya station – was launched in February 15. The line connects major regional installations like the Bovanenkovo gas field with national key infrastructure.

The Obskaya-Bovanenkovo railway line will enable Gazprom to easily ship huge quantities of goods and construction materials to its field development sites in Yamal.

“The opening of this railway will facilitate all-year-round, quick, cost efficient and not-weather-dependent transport of goods and personnel to the fields in Yamal under the harsh Arctic conditions, a press release from Gazprom reads.

Unline other Russian railway lines, the Obskaya-Bovanenkovo line is owned by Gazprom. As previously reported, the Russian Railways have been invited to take over the line, but has shown little interest.

In addition to railway and field development in Yamal, Gazprom is also investing in the laying of the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta gas pipeline.

Source: Gazprom

This 10-day exchange will bring leaders working on indigenous issues and a traditional way of life from Alaska’s Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope to the Sakha Republic to meet with Evenk tribal and NGO leaders and officials in several Sakha villages. The Evenk community in Sakha, a traditional reindeer-herding culture, is working to protect its culture and way of life in the face of increasing resource extraction activities and industrial development. Through the exchange, indigenous leaders will convene to share experiences and to learn from each other. Participants will discuss their communities’ approach to protecting sacred traditional lands, participation in decision-making processes regarding natural resource use, and community leaders’ experience negotiating with resource extraction companies and monitoring industrial projects.

This will be the third in a series of exchanges between the Sakha Evenk community and the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope. The first exchange, in 2008, brought Evenk leaders from the Sakha Republic to Barrow for information-sharing and a cultural exchange that resulted in a Memorandum of Understanding, under which the communities agreed to mutual support for efforts to protect indigenous peoples’ rights and preserve traditional lands in the face of industrial development.

The relationship initiated here was strengthened in March 2010, when Evenk leaders from Sakha and Russian geological experts visited Barrow for cultural presentations and to share the effects of hydrocarbon extraction on the indigenous reindeer economy. This third exchange will provide further opportunity for both communities to deepen knowledge of the each other’s culture and community challenges, and to identify ways to support each other’s efforts.

Indigenous communities on both sides of the Arctic, including Alaska’s North Slope and Russia’s Sakhalin Island, have for decades watched their pristine homelands and traditional fishing and hunting grounds be sacrificed to oilfield development.

Traditional Arctic communities are often the first to experience the effects of global climate change, and stories abound from both sides of the Pacific about environmental conditions changing in response to warming trends, such as the melting of Siberian permafrost or the recent appearance of new insect species in Alaska. Such rapid change necessitates strong community organization and cooperation among indigenous groups to protect their lands and traditional ways of life from the impacts of global warming and resource extraction projects.

“Our goal is to continue to help foster the longstanding relationships between native Russian and Alaska tribal communities that can eventually be developed into an influential information-sharing and advocacy network,” said Shawna Larson, Alaska Program Co-Director for Pacific Environment. “We see this as an opportunity for both groups to gain a better understanding of the impacts of oil and gas projects on indigenous life in the Arctic and how to collectively best approach this.”

Members of the delegation will be available for interviews upon returning from the exchange, during the week of March 21, 2011. For more information contact Colleen Keane at ckeane@pacificenvironment.org or (907) 277-1029.

For more information visit www.pacificenvironment.org/russia and www.pacificenvironment.org/alaska for more information.

A reindeer herder put it to the Reindeer Blog in a different way – ‘This is what happens when you don’t have reindeer herders!’

Read the comic book strip here.

The world’s fourth largest mining company Anglo American is conducting exploratory drillings in the same area in order to find nickel, copper, and gold deposits. Almost 100 people are working on samples and test drillings in the area.

The Canadian mining company First Quantum is also making exploratory drillings. The company is building a mine and an enrichment plant in Kevitsa, a good ten kilometres away from Kersilö.
The complex will cost EUR 250 million.
”The nickel and copper mine that is to be started early next year will employ nearly 300 people”, reports General Manager Reijo Uusitalo of the FQM Kevitsa Mining.

Both companies have lodged a claim application with the Finnish MInistry of Employment and the Economy in order to examine further the deposits in Sodankylä.
On the Finnish scale, the claim covers a huge area, namely roughly 400,000 hectares. In addition, four other foreign mining companies are prospecting for ore in Sodankylä.

”Sodankylä is a very promising area. We are searching for ore deposits in order that we could open one or several mines which could operate at least for the next 40 years”, says Director Jim Coppard from Anglo American, but he is unwilling to reveal any results.

Will reindeer herding face trouble when mining activities expand? Central Lapland is turning into a mining zone, stretching from Kolari through Kittilä to Sodankylä.
Kittilä is the home of Finland’s largest gold mine, while an iron ore mine is to be opened in Kolari. The industry is believed to employ at least 1,000 people in the next few years.
”Every night I wonder whether reindeer herding has any future”, says Pasi Salmi. ”The counterforce is so big that one could get depressed. Some good lichen areas were already lost under the Kevitsa mine. I wonder what Anglo American’s men will find”, Olli Pulju contemplates.

In Sodankylä, the number of reindeer owners is 578 and there are roughly 25,000 head of reindeer. The population is 8,002, which is one inhabitant more than last year.
”For the first time in 30 years, Sodankylä recorded a net migration gain. People are moving back from Southern Finland. A new apartment building is being constructed in the centre, and a new K-supermarket has been completed”, says Kauko Nurmela, the trade ombudsman of the municipality.

The mining boom can already be seen and heard. At the breakfast table in the Karhu Hotel in the centre, one can hear a buzz of English conversation. The hotel is fully booked.
All rental flats have also been reserved, even those located in remote villages, and there is a waiting list for the residences.

Today, the unemployment rate is 10 %, while in the 1990s it was as high as 32 %. Sodankylä has launched a housing programme, as on the western side of the municipality, the Swedish Lappland Goldminers is already operating the Pahtavaara gold mine, which employs more than 100 people.
”The atmosphere in Sodankylä is optimistic, as the unemployment rate has declined. I can see Kevitsa’s lights from the window of my home in Moskuvaara. I am only thinking about what will happen to the environment”, says Sini Veikanmaa, who goes to upper secondary school in Sodankylä.
Anglo American, operating in the Natura environmental protection area, has reported that it will take away all mud that comes up during drilling, while also recycling the waters of the drilling machine.
Veikko Virtanen, the chairman of the municipal board, believes that reindeer husbandry and mining can coexist in Sodankylä.

Source: Helsingin sanomat

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 to form thick ice over lichen pastures.

Neutered males are more able to break through ice with their hooves or antlers, and seem more willing than other males to move aside and share food with calves that can die of starvation in bad freeze-thaw winters like 2000-01.

“To make herds more resilient in the future, we need to re-learn the traditional knowledge of castration,” said professor Svein Mathiesen, coordinator of the University of the Arctic’s Institute of Circumpolar Reindeer Husbandry.

More castration “could be useful to adapt to climate change,” he told Reuters in the Arctic city of Tromsoe. “These animals are very good diggers for the small calves in the most critical period of the winter.” Pasture this year is good.

Castration has traditionally been used by reindeer herders, partly to make wild animals more docile. Herders on the Yamal peninsula in Russia still neuter about half of all males — usually by biting into the testicles with their teeth.

Far fewer animals are castrated outside Russia. About 100,000 Sami own about 2.5 million reindeer in homelands in the Nordic countries and Russia.

HALF-CASTRATION

The traditional Sami biting technique aims for “half-castration” — under which the animals become sterile but still produce some of the male hormone testosterone that promotes muscle growth.

Sami in Norway, where laws limit castration to surgery with anesthetics, are now experimenting with a vaccine to recreate the effects of half-castration.

No interest in sex also helps neutered males in winter.

“Males castrated in the traditional way would have an increased chance of survival over other males since they maintain body weight and condition during the rutting season,” according to a research document by Eli Risten Nergaard of Sami University College.

The Arctic region is warming at double the global rate in a trend blamed by the U.N.’s panel of climate scientists on greenhouse gases from mankind’s burning of fossil fuels.

Yamal herders castrate many of their reindeer, partly because they need strong, docile animals to pull heavy sleds. In Norway, Sami have come to rely on snow-scooters and get most money for calf meat, meaning most males are slaughtered young.

The Sami castration study indicates the complexities of adapting to the impacts of climate change. Many other scientists are focusing on issues such as how to cope with river floods or rising sea levels, or ways to develop drought-resistant crops.

Castrated reindeer also keep their antlers for much of the winter while normal males shed their antlers each autumn after the mating season. That implies that Rudolph, pulling Father Christmas’s sled, has been castrated.

Source: REUTERS