Library of Congress
A reindeer sled, Arkhangelsk, Russia. Late nineteenth-century
R
eindeer are written into folklore as elusive and
magical creatures. Far from major population
centres, this quiet and determined species
drifts across snowy boreal forest, vast tundra, and
alpine meadows. They are found throughout the entire
circumpolar north: Alaska, Canada, Finland, Norway,
Russia, and Sweden.
Reindeer possess a number of sturdy traits that
make them ideal for Santa’s sleigh drivers: speed and
agility for escaping predators, endurance for long
migrations, resistance to cold winters, and ability to
seek out limited food sources. Despite these hardy characteristics, human development of northern regions
is placing reindeer at serious risk of becoming a mere
fairytale: a species almost driven to extinction by our
relentless pursuit of minerals, wood fibre, and energy.
In North America, boreal woodland caribou
(Rangifer tarandus caribou) populations are declining
in most of their range and receding northward due
to suspected habitat loss. Domesticated reindeer
(Rangifer tarandus tarandus) in northern Europe
face similar spatial constraints, with almost one third
of reindeer herding ranges severely affected or made
partially inaccessible by industrial development, infrastructure, and other human activities.
The same characteristics that make reindeer sensi-
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tive to disturbance are the ones that offer scientists
critical insight into the looming global phenomenon
of climate change and its cumulative effects. Reindeer’s
sensitivity to disturbance stems from their need to move
freely across the landscape at varying scales of space and
time in order to avoid predators and to seek adequate
food sources and grounds for calving and rearing.
At the largest spatial scale, reindeer migrate
between seasonal ranges according to the time of year
and climatic conditions: from lowland winter grazing
areas up to summer calving areas in the mountains.
The next scale is at the feeding level, where reindeer
can remain feeding for days, weeks or months; for
example, in a lowland bog with abundant green foliage.
The patch level is the smallest spatial and temporal
scale, where reindeer make small movements to access
food patches for a period of hours or minutes before
moving to the next patch.
Human disturbances can cause reindeer to change
movement patterns across scales in an effort to avoid
sound and light. Studies suggest that reindeer avoid
power lines up to a distance of four kilometres, population centres up to twelve kilometres, and mines
up to fourteen kilometres. The changes in reindeer
movement provide vital information on the effects of
human development in northern ecosystems, and can