Rangifer tarandus (click here)
The world's Caribou and Reindeer are classified as a single species. Rangifer tarandus. Reindeer is the European name for the species while in North America, the species is known as Caribou. Here we use either name or Rangifer.
Identification of subspecies has changed over time (Banfield 1961, Geist 2007) and currently, Grubb (2005) lists 14 sub-species of which two are extinct: eogroenlandicus and dawsoni, however, the latter may have been an island dwarf form (Byun et al. 2002). In Russia, the use of subspecies differs from Grubb (2005) as angustirostris is recognized but not buskensis (I. Mizin pers. comm.). The subspecies are distinguished largely on skeletal and skull measurements, antler architecture and behaviour. The major groupings of subspecies are Boreal forest, continental tundra and high Arctic island. Based on current abundance, continental tundra caribou are the most numerous (56%) relative to mountain (19%), the forest (14%) and Arctic island (11%)....
These Finnish have every right to their lives and lifestyle. They are happy and healthy and raise reindeer as their livelihood. The people of the USA are so closed minded because of their politics, they refuse to see the real human tragedy developing in Lapland due to climate change.
It is embarrassing to realize the extent Americans are ignorant and arrogant. When one adds up those character issues, it makes for a highly laughable set of values and the people that hold them dear.
The USA knows, nor does it care about the people in Finland scared for their future and that of their culture.
It is embarrassing to realize the extent Americans are ignorant and arrogant. When one adds up those character issues, it makes for a highly laughable set of values and the people that hold them dear.
The USA knows, nor does it care about the people in Finland scared for their future and that of their culture.
11 March 2018Inka Saara Arttijeff is the adviser to the president of the Sámi Parliament and hails from a family of Sámi reindeer herders. She represents Finland at international climate change summits.
This story by Sonia Narang for GlobalPost originally appeared on PRI.org on March 7, 2018, and is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.
Inka Saara Arttijeff and her family (click here) gather in the cozy kitchen of their red, wooden house, as a pot of soup simmers on the stove. They live at the edge of a frozen lake in the storybook village of Nellim, up towards the far reaches of northern Finland. It’s early February, and the sun here begins to set around 3 p.m. Arttijeff is part of a family of indigenous Sámi reindeer herders who are unfazed by short days in subzero weather.
The Sámi are indigenous to the northern parts of Finland, as well as Sweden, Norway and Russia, known for their centuries-old tradition of herding reindeer. (Reindeer are considered “semidomesticated” in Finland, and guided through their seasonal migrations by the herders.) However, the warming climate has threatened to disrupt the Sámi people's tradition of reindeer herding. As Arctic temperatures rise more than twice as fast as the global average, reindeer herders are struggling to cope with increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather.
Outside Arttijeff’s home, vast expanses of snow-covered trees fill the forest landscape. However, logging has started to encroach upon forests where Sámi people herd. The combination of weather changes and increased tree cutting has made it harder for reindeer to find food, and it’s altered their migration patterns.
“Reindeer herding represents a way of life,” Arttijeff said.
“We are born to be reindeer herders; it's part of our identity,” she added. “It's hard to think about your life without it.”...
By Stephen Dudeck
Members (click here) of the ORHELIA Team Nuccio Mazzullo and Stephan Dudeck took part in the seminar ”Innovations and Traditions of Arctic Reindeer Herding” in the Sámi Education Institute on 20.1.2012 in Inari.
It was a great opportunity for us to meet people involved in reindeer husbandry from Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Komi Republic, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Taimyr area and Sakha Republic in Russia and from Finnish Lapland.
The participants of the seminar discussed the state of reindeer herding in general throughout the herding areas, reindeer pastures, reindeer meat and leather production and their marketing. Overarching topics were the management of the natural enemies of domesticated reindeer, the predators, and the influence of factors like traffic or the mining industry on reindeer herding.
Growing touristic interest in reindeer husbandry and the connected cultures develops albeit in different ways in almost all reindeer herding regions in the North and causes new possibilities for local economies.
Europe and especially Scandinavia is more and more involved in the reindeer herding business in Russia. Russian reindeer meat is reaching the European market and European investment is engaged in meat processing. Well organized slaughtering and meat processing is a crucial point for the development of reindeer meat production. But reindeer husbandry is more than a business; it is an inextricable part of indigenous lifestyles that developed over centuries....
