The Magical Mystical Reindeer Santa’s mythical team of eight tiny reindeer have their roots in Northern Europe. Reindeer are native to the northern climes of the Scandinavian countries and Russia. The reindeer is the only deer species to have been domesticated and in fact was domesticated before the horse. Domestication was by the early Eurasian people. The largest group of these was the Lapplanders or Sami as they call themselves. The Sami lived with the reindeer and herded them, gaining their food, clothing transportation and entertainment from the deer. There are records that indicate wealthy landowners owned great herds of reindeer many centuries ago. There are approximately 2.2 million reindeer in the world. In the southern US there are approximately 5000 reindeer and another 25 000 in Alaska. Canada shows numbers of 8-10000 mostly between Inuvik NT and the Belcher Islands with some 700-1000 reindeer in souther Canada, mostly in BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan. There are very few wild reindeer herds in the world. Even in our far north the herds are owned by someone even though they seem to be running wild on the tundra. Up until fairly recently they were herded in Northern Europe but increasingly they are keeping their reindeer behind fences and are branching out into other markets such as tourism. Modern Sami no longer accept the lonely herder life and will use snowmobiles when they are herding or confine their reindeer. Reindeer are sociable animals who readily interact with their human caretakers. With attention and frequent handling most will become quite tame. A calm deer possesses an inquisitive nature (they are quick to learn). They may seek out special communications with you if you are alert to the signals. For example, we have a female reindeer that we had moved from one paddock to another. She apparently didn't like the change. When I went out in the paddock she would hang around me or come up and literally gaze at me to catch my attention. She would then follow up to the gate even if they'd been fed. Usually at feeding time reindeer are more interested in eating than anything else. One night I opened the gate a little wider and invited her in. She was through it like a shot. Once in her old pen she was happy and ignored me again. Reindeer were deliberately brought to North America in the late 1800s spearheaded by a northern missionary who convinced the US government to finance the importation of several thousand reindeer. This was an attempt to provide the inhabitants of Alaska and alternate food and potential economic source when the whaling industry was being decimated by overhunting. This was more or less a success although herding of the reindeer by the Inuit was slow to catch on. When gold was discovered near Nome on the Seward Peninsula in 1898, reindeer were much in demand as draft animals to haul mail and freight to the miners. The gold towns also provided a ready market for reindeer meat which is highly nutritious. Reindeer in their traditional habitat, the tundra, produce meat which is high in vitamins as well, allowing the Sami and others the ability to stay healthy throughout the long arctic winter without a source of green vegetables. Reindeer are being raised successfully in the western provinces in Canada as well as a number of states in the U.S., mostly on only a few acres. Most are kept for display or pet purposes although there are some operations that raise them for meat. Reindeer meat is highly valued in specialty markets. ...Page 2

Page updated April 2006