Reindeer

Reindeer Wikipedia Search

Reproduction and life-cycle
Further information:

Mating occurs from late September to early November. Males battle for access to females. Two males will lock each other's antlers together and try to push each other away. The most dominant males can collect as many as 15–20 females to mate with. A male will stop eating during this time and lose much of his body reserves.

Calves may be born the following May or June. After 45 days, the calves are able to graze and forage but continue suckling until the following autumn when they become independent from their mothers.

The reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), also known as in, is a of with distribution, native to , , tundra, boreal and mountainous regions of northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. This includes both and populations.

While overall widespread and numerous, some of its are rare and at least one has already become. For this reason, it is considered to be vulnerable by the.

Reindeer vary considerably in colour and size. Both sexes can grow annually, although the proportion of females that grow antlers varies greatly between population and season. Antlers are typically larger on males.

Hunting of wild reindeer and of semi- reindeer (for meat, hides, antlers, milk and transportation) are important to several Arctic and Subarctic peoples. In, reindeer pull.

In traditional festive legend, pull a sleigh through the night sky to help deliver gifts to children on.

Distribution and habitat
Originally, the reindeer was found in, eastern Europe, , Russia, , and northern China north of the. In North America, it was found in Canada,, and the northern conterminous USA from to. In the 19th century, it was apparently still present in southern. Even in historical times, it probably occurred naturally in. During the late era, reindeer occurred as far south as and in North America, and as far south as in Europe. Today, wild reindeer have disappeared from these areas, especially from the southern parts, where it vanished almost everywhere. Large populations of wild reindeer are still found in, , , Greenland, Alaska, and Canada.

According to the Grubb (2005), Rangifer tarandus is "circumboreal in the tundra and taiga" from "Svalbard, Norway, Finland, Russia, Alaska (USA) and Canada including most Arctic islands, and Greenland, south to northern, (Inner Mongolia; now only domesticated or feral?), , and USA (Northern Idaho and the Great Lakes region). Reindeer were introduced to, and feral in, Iceland, , , , ."

There is strong regional variation in Rangifer herd size. There are large population differences among individual herds, and the size of individual herds has varied greatly since 1970. The largest of all herds (Taimyr, Russia) has varied between 400,000 and 1,000,000; the second largest herd (George River, Canada) has varied between 28,000 and 385,000.

While Rangifer is a widespread and numerous genus in the northern, being present in both and (boreal forest), by 2013, many herds had "unusually low numbers" and their winter ranges in particular were smaller than they used to be. Caribou and reindeer numbers have fluctuated historically, but many herds are in decline across their range. This global decline is linked to for northern, migratory herds and industrial disturbance of habitat for non-migratory herds

Predators
Reindeer standing on snow to avoid blood-sucking insects.

A variety of predators prey heavily on reindeer. prey on calves and are the most prolific hunter on calving grounds. will take newborn calves or birthing cows, as well as (less commonly) infirm adults. and prey on reindeer of all ages, but like the wolverines they are most likely to attack weaker animals, such as calves and sick deer, since healthy adult reindeer can usually outpace a bear. The is the most effective natural predator of adult reindeer and sometimes takes large numbers, especially during the winter. Some wolf packs as well as individual grizzly bears in Canada may follow and live off of a particular reindeer herd year round.

As carrion, reindeer are fed on opportunistically by, , and. Blood-sucking insects, such as and, are a plague to reindeer during the summer and can cause enough stress to inhibit feeding and calving behaviours. An adult reindeer will lose perhaps about 1 liter (about 2 US pints) of blood to biting insects for every week it spends in the tundra. The population numbers of some of these predators is influenced by the migration of reindeer