Various steps, such as spreading reindeer repellent on the roads, have been taken in an attempt to reduce the number of reindeer collisions. So far these measures have had little effect on the number of accidents.
“Today many motorists already have sat-nav devices in their cars, so harnessing this technology to warn about the reindeer might be an efficient method”, says executive manager Pertti Viik of the Reindeer Herders’ Association.
Nearly every satellite navigation device can be rigged to sound a beep to inform the driver of a police speed camera lurking by the side of the road. The thinking goes that in the same fashion, an intelligent device could warn about the presence of reindeer.

Unfortunately, unlike the cameras in their sheet metal boxes, the reindeer do not stay put.
“For this purpose the reindeer herders will notify on which road sections there are exceptionally large numbers of reindeer. For example in the spring the reindeer will not try to cross a river if the ice is too weak. At that time the animals easily resort to using roads and bridges instead”, Viik explains.
In the first phase, six of the country’s 56 reindeer herding cooperatives will take part in the experiment.
“The information will be collected by the cooperatives’ damage estimators, who then pass the information regarding the reindeer movements to Destia Traffic, responsible for maintaining the database. In the autumn it will be decided how long the individual reindeer warnings will continue to be transmitted to the navigators”, explains engineer Erkki Hulkko of the Finnish Road Administration’s Lapland Road Region.
Destia Traffic is the leading provider of commercial traffic information in the Nordic and Baltic countries.

The sums involved in reindeer accidents are not small: each year the reindeer cooperatives receive compensation of around EUR 1.5 million for livestock lost in this way. The average sum is around 700 euros, but for an animal that is used for racing, or in the tourism industry – for example pulling Santa’s sleigh – the figure can be as much as EUR 2,000. Compulsory vehicle insurance provides compensation for major vehicle damage or personal injuries.

Jon Mikkal Labba, the leader of the Vapsten Sami village, says that he begins his working day by turning on the computer, to see how the reindeer behave and where they are.

I can see if it the reindeers move a lot and then I know that there is interference, either predators or other things, and then we can concentrate on that area during the day.

Currently, Vapsten have 30 GPS transmitters in one siida (winter group) and Labba thinks that that it is a good number.

I think it works very well

Jon Mikael Labba says that they have chosen to have the transmitters on large females, because the transmitters are rather clumsy, so the reindeer must be large.

It is an entirely new approach that is under development in reindeer herding. Jon Mikkal Labba admits that, in this way, he may lose contact with nature and the traditional way of practicing reindeer husbandry. But he believes that the old knowledge about how reindeer behave in the wild is not always useful in today’s reindeer because nature has changed.

Nature is so altered due to forestry, so that you can not say more how the reindeer are, and in this way we get a better insight how the land looks like and we are in different areas from year to year and use large areas.

The Swedish government has given the green light to a new railway in Kiruna. However, a precondition is that reindeer herding is affected as little as possible.

Two reindeer herders are reported as being missing in the Gallivare mountains after strong winds and storms.

Vapstens sameby får pengar för att sätta GPS-sändare på renar. Det har länsstyrelsen i Västerbotten beslutat.Vapsten vill följa renarnas vandringsmönster med GPS, och på så vis ta reda på var renarnas naturliga betesområden ligger. En anledning är de senaste årens dåliga vintrar som tvingat samebyarna att växla till andra vinterbetesområden. Tidigare har bland annat Vilhelmina norra och Malå sameby fått pengar för att GPS-märka renar….

Regeringen har gett klartecken till en ny järnväg i Kiruna. En förutsättning är att rennäringen påverkas så lite som möjligt.

Två renskötare är försvunna sedan i går kväll i området nordväst om Ritsem, mot norska gränsen. Dom skulle övernatta i renvaktarstuga, men kom inte dit i avtalad tid.

Hans Erik Sandvik, a herder from this district said that he hoped that it would help improve the documentation of predators killing reindeer in the district.

We assume that about 40-50 percent of the calves are taken by predators…but it is almost impossible to document losses. We find between 50-80 carcasses a year, but most, especially calves are difficult to find. Most of our work goes towards looking for carcasses