 A Herd of Wild Reindeer
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Dec. 19, 2003 — The last population of wild reindeer left in Europe is dwindling, squeezed by human encroachment on its territory, according to a report in New Scientist.
The construction of dams and vacation cabins across the animals' habitat in southern Norway have splintered the already stressed remaining population, as the reindeer are reclusive and reluctant to venture past such human-made barriers.
Christian Nellemann of the United Nations Environment Program in Arendal, Norway, and colleagues studied the steep decline of the Norwegian reindeer.
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Citing a study in a recent issue of Biological Conservation, New Scientist reports that the animals are having to retreat into shrinking areas. The lichen on which they feed is depleted more quickly in the smaller areas.
"The situation in Norway is quite critical," Nellemann said in the magazine. "They've lost 50 per cent of their habitat in 50 years."
In tracking the movements of the reindeer, whose population has halved to 30,000 since the 1960s, Nellemann's team found that the animals will retreat from anywhere within four kilometers (2.5 miles) of development. For instance, in the summer, reindeer populations fall to 36 percent of what they were before the human encroachment. In the winter, that herd density tumbles to 8 percent of what it should be.
As reindeer crowd into more remote areas, densities there have risen 217 percent, Nellemann told the magazine.
The remaining reindeer have been fragmented into 24 isolated groups by the unnatural frontiers, which they generally won't cross. At the current rate of decline, Nellemann said, there will be room for only 15,000 animals by 2020.
"In some of the worst-hit areas, only one in three reindeer females is having a live calf," he said in the magazine, compared to an expected calving rate of between 80 and 90 per cent.
Nellemann said one solution would be to reopen vital migration routes severed by infrastructure projects, something that could be done by extending national parks across those areas. But the government needs to rein in further human development, he said, before the reindeer are gone.
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Name: Caribou, aka Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus)
Primary Classification: Cervidae (Deer and Relatives) Location: Northern Europe, northern Asia, northern Canada, and Alaska. Habitat: Arctic tundra. Diet: Grasses, sedges, herbs, mosses, lichens and fungi. Size: Up to 7 ft in length and 700 lbs in weight. Description: Brown to gray in color; white underparts; dark legs; long antlers with shovel-like brow tine; heavy coat with dense, wooly underfur; large, concave hooves. Cool Facts: It is the only species of deer in which both sexes bear antlers. There are eight subspecies, each varying in size, shape and color. It migrates hundreds of miles each spring to calving grounds in the tundra. Conservation Status: Not listed by the IUCN. |
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