Abstract

During the past decades, studies about human – Rangifer (reindeer and caribou) interactions have increased. However, many of the studies have been performed on Norwegian wild reindeer or caribou in North America. It is often questioned whether results from these studies can be applied to reindeer within reindeer husbandry, as these animals have been exposed to a domestication process and are also more used to humans. However, in 1971, D. Klein pointed out that knowledge about domesticated reindeer in Scandinavia could aid in predicting potential problem for caribou in North America. He also gives an overview of problems facing the reindeer herding in Scandinavia in the 1970-ties. Apart from mining around the city of Kiruna, the main factors identified were hydropower constructions and forestry. At least within the reindeer husbandry area in Sweden, these are still some of main factors affecting reindeer grazing land, and today they are also accompanied with an expanding mining industry and an expansion of wind power parks and with these an increasing infrastructure of roads and power grids. In Norway expansion of hut areas and also wind power has been an increasing problem the recent years, whereas Finland has about the same problem as Sweden with forestry affecting a large part of the grazing land. However, despite Klein’s review in 1971, there has been a hesitation in comparing knowledge from wild reindeer and caribou with knowledge about domesticated reindeer and vice versa. In order to illuminate the domesticated reindeer´s reactions to various disturbance sources, 18 studies were reviewed on effects of human activity and infrastructures on domesticated reindeer, compared these to studies on wild reindeer and caribou and discuss the effects of domestication and tameness on reindeer response to anthropogenic disturbance. I address the relevance of spatial and temporal scale, as well as method for data collection when evaluating results from these studies. The reviewed studies showed that domesticated reindeer avoid infrastructure and human activity up to 12 km from the disturbance source, and that the avoided zone may shift between seasons and years. Despite a long domestication process, reindeer within Sami reindeer herding systems show similar patterns of large-scale avoidance from anthropogenic disturbance as do wild Rangifer, although the strength of avoidance may sometimes differ. This is not surprising since current Sami reindeer husbandry represents an extensive form of pastoralism, with a relatively low degree of tameness in the reindeer. To get a true picture of how reindeer use their ranges, it is of fundamental importance to study the response pattern at a spatial and temporal scale that is relevant for the reindeer, whether it is domesticated or wild.

Published in

SLU Authors

• Skarin, Anna

  • Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Ecology
Environmental Sciences


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/62156