Status Updates From Reindeer: An Arctic Life
Reindeer: An Arctic Life by
Status Updates Showing 1-30 of 117
Carol
is on page 182 of 192
Once the herd meets us they patiently wait, silent but attentive, for the food to appear. There is no incessant noise like a hungry sheep baaing for its food. Making a noise is costly, because by expelling air to grunt the animal loses heat. Reindeer grunt as their means of communication but grunting is kept to a minimum during the winter months.
— Jan 09, 2024 06:56PM
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Carol
is on page 106 of 192
Humans would never have been able to inhabit the Arctic without the reindeer but the reindeer can live in the Arctic without humans. This makes humans a parasite of the reindeer.
— Jan 07, 2024 04:24PM
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Carol
is on page 104 of 192
[T]he ancient Tungus have … been credited by some as the original domesticators of reindeer. The Tungus are the ancestors of many different groups of reindeer hunters and herders in Russia today, including the Evenk, Even and Dolgans. … Like the Sayan, it is very likely that they developed a method of riding reindeer to enable them to travel with ease through the taiga, to allow them to hunt and fish.
— Jan 07, 2024 04:22PM
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Carol
is on page 99 of 192
Until the 1950s, when they moved to permanent settlements, the Chipewyan Indians … maximized their contact with caribou by moving from winter settlements in the boreal forest to summer camps near the tree line…. It appears to have been a successful strategy for survival as the Chipewyan have few legends of starvation, in contrast to the sedentary Inuit on the Arctic coastline….
— Jan 07, 2024 03:54PM
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Carol
is on page 98 of 192
Unlike the reindeer of Eurasia, the caribou of North America were never domesticated. They would undoubtedly have been of prime importance as a hunted animal in Paleolithic times in North America, but the hunter-gatherer lifestyle appears never to have evolved further, and to this day the indigenous people of North America are hunters rather than herders.
— Jan 07, 2024 03:42PM
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Carol
is on page 24 of 192
Off the north coast of Russia … there is another distinct sub-species: Novozeml’sk reindeer….Reindeer from these high-Arctic islands have an incredibly short growing season of about eight weeks and in this time the reindeer have to do all their maturing, growing of antlers and laying down of fat reserves. However, one bonus is the lack of mosquitoes, which torment the mainland species.
— Dec 26, 2023 01:15PM
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Carol
is on page 20 of 192
The name reindeer is derived from the Old Norse word brein, meaning reindeer, while in North America caribou is derived from the Micmac Indian word Xalibu, meaning ‘digger of snow’.
— Dec 26, 2023 01:06PM
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Carol
is on page 28 of 192
Reindeer carry their heads very low to the ground, with a chunky profile, thick legs, short hairy ears and flat feet, they have an ungainly look about them. But by having a low body-to-surface area ratio reindeer lose relatively less heat than their cousins.
— Dec 26, 2023 01:01PM
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