Reindeer live in the Arctic
Reindeer live on the tundra along the Arctic Circle, and are therefore perfectly adapted to cope with the harsh and long winter. The fur is warm and extremely dense, and it consists of a thick undercoat and long hollow guard hairs. A thick layer of fat under the fur acts as additional insulation and a source of energy during the winter.
Heat exchanger in legs and nose
However, fur and fat alone cannot protect against the cold that comes from the icy ground. For this, the reindeer has other tricks up its sleeve. In the legs, the blood vessels are so close that the warm blood from inside the body warms the blood that runs back to the heart from the hooves. This means that the hooves can be about 30 degrees colder than the rest of the reindeer. Similarly, the reindeer’s snout utilizes the heat from the blood by drawing the icy Arctic air through a lot of small labyrinthine passages filled with blood vessels. The air is thus heated before it ends up in the lungs.
Cold air contains very little moisture, and without defense mechanisms, the reindeer would quickly lose a lot of fluid with each breath. Therefore, the moisture from the warm exhaled air condenses inside the nasal labyrinth passages. This means that the inhaled air is humidified at the same time as it is heated, and the lungs are thereby protected against both cold and drying out.
Reindeer legs click when they walk.
If you listen to a reindeer running or walking, you will hear the clicking of their legs. This is caused by a tendon in their leg sliding over a bone. This sound helps the reindeer stay together in the herd during the dark polar nights and snowstorms where visibility is limited.
Both males and females have antlers
As the only deer species, both males (bulls) and females (does) have antlers in reindeer.
Having antlers is a big cost for the animal, which has to spend energy both making a new antler every year and carrying it around. Therefore, it only makes sense for females to have antlers if it also gives them a clear advantage. In winter, it can be difficult to find food, and if the females did not have antlers themselves, they would have difficulty defending their food against the males. Furthermore, males typically shed their antlers only in the winter after the rutting season, while females retain their antlers until spring. This gives pregnant females in particular an important competitive advantage over the winter.
Should reindeer have lichen?
No, it is an old misconception that reindeer can only live on lichen. In the summer, reindeer live on grasses, herbs and flowers, while in the winter they mainly live on lichen, as this is the most common food source in the reindeer’s wintering area. However, reindeer can easily live exclusively on grass, for example. They just need plenty of time to adjust their rumen to this.
On the island of South Georgia in the southern hemisphere, there is a reindeer population, established by whalers in 1911. There is no lichen here – only a number of grass species, and yet the reindeer population thrives in the best possible way. This shows something about the reindeer’s adaptability under very different conditions.
Reindeer are the domestic animals of the Sami
The oldest account of reindeer herding is found in the annals of the Liang dynasty from the year 499 and deals with Siberia. It tells of the mysterious land where carts were pulled by deer, and where the deer were milked. However, reindeer herding in Siberia is probably much older.
In Scandinavia, it is estimated that the reindeer was domesticated about 1,500 years ago. The reindeer were the basis of life for the Sami people in the North Calotte. They were pack and draft animals and provided them with meat, milk, clothing, tools and tent cloth.
Today, there are a total of about 600,000 domesticated reindeer in Scandinavia. In some places, wild reindeer are still found, which mainly have brown fur, unlike domesticated reindeer, whose fur is multi-colored.
