Facts about Reindeer

The caribou (known as reindeer in Europe and Eureasia) is found in North America in Canada and Alaska, and in Greenland.

Reindeer have been herded for centuries by several Arctic people, including the Sami and the Nenets.

In Alaska, reindeer sausage is sold locally to supermarkets and grocery stores.

Norway is now preparing to apply for nomination as a World Heritage Site for areas with traces and traditions of reindeer hunting in Central Sшrlandet (Southern Norway).

Norway and Greenland have unbroken traditions of hunting wild reindeer from the ice age until the present day.

Reindeer herders on the Seward Peninsula have experienced significant losses to their herds from animals (such as wolves) following the wild caribou during their migrations.

A caribou or reindeer swims easily and fast; migrating herds will not hesitate to swim across a large lake or broad river.

The coat of caribou (reindeer) has two layers of fur, a dense woolly undercoat and longer-haired overcoat consisting of hollow, air-filled hairs.

The use of reindeer as semi-domesticated livestock in Alaska was introduced in the late 1800s, by Sheldon Jackson as a means of providing a livelihood for Native peoples there.

The reindeer has (or has had) an important economic role for all circumpolar peoples, including the Sami, Nenets, Khants, Evenks, Yukaghirs, Chukchi, and Koryaks in Eurasia.

Scandinavian domesticated reindeer are supposed to be a mixture of the two subspecies tarandus and fennicus—mountain and Finnish woodland reindeer.

Reindeer are found in northern Scandinavia; at Spitsbergen; in European parts of Russia including northern Russia and Novaya Zemlya; in the Asian parts of Russia; northern Mongolia; northeastern China to the Pacific Ocean.

Reindeer meat is popular in the Scandinavian countries.

In 1952, reindeer were reintroduced to Scotland, as the natural stock had become extinct, probably in the tenth century.

Sautйed reindeer is the best-known dish in Lapland.

Reindeer hunting by humans has a very long history and caribou/wild reindeer "may well be the species of single greatest importance in the entire anthropological literature on hunting" (Burch 1972).

Natural threats to reindeer include avalanches and predators such as wolves, wolverines, lynx, and bears.

Reindeer (caribou) mainly eat lichens in winter, especially reindeer moss.

Reindeer are not considered fully domesticated, as they generally roam free on pasture grounds.

The males, and only the males, of most species of deer develop antlers, with the exception of the caribou (reindeer), in which females also have antlers.

Reindeer introduced into Alaska near the end of the nineteenth century interbreed with native caribou subspecies there.

Humans started hunting reindeer in the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods and humans are today the main predator in many areas.

A few reindeer from Norway were introduced to the South Atlantic island of South Georgia in the beginning of the twentieth century.

Reindeer antler is powdered and sold as an aphrodisiac and nutritional or medicinal supplement to Asian markets.

The last wild reindeer in Europe are found in portions of southern Norway.

Wild reindeer are considered to be very vulnerable to human disturbance, especially the last two months before and during the calving period in late May.

Roundworms, tapeworms (NLA 2004), meningeal worms (Paralaphostrongylus tenius), and sarcocystis can also afflict reindeer.

Siberian deer-owners also use the reindeer to ride on.

The reindeer is distributed throughout a number of northern locales.

The first written description of reindeer is in Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico (chapter 6.26), from the first century B.C.E..