Reindeer predation

Turns out one of the men at work is a Sami, when not on the rig he lives a semi nomadic life following his extended families reindeer herd somewhere up north in Norway.

Interesting chat with him, and with a land still populated with occasional bears and wolves I was slightly surprised to discover what the two biggest predators of these reindeer were. It split pretty much down the seasons:

Summer - Golden Eagle

Winter - Wolverine.

Eagles taking calves I presume?

I spend time working with Sami in Sweden and one of their problems with untimely deaths of reindeer is car drivers.

They are forest Sami rather than mountain Sami so the calves are a bit more sheltered from aerial attack.

I’ve seen both golden and sea eagles hunting red deer calves in Argyll. Trying to break hind groups and separate young/small calves up to around 5 months old.

Quite awesome to see nature in a way people normally would reject as the impossible

I have spent a number of times in Finland, hunting Moose, Whitetail and birds. I have stayed with a number of friends over the years, all of them hunters.

Some years back I also had a licence for a Forest Rheindeer in Finland, which at the time were very limited in number. I was not succesful, although we did see one or two, but no safe shot presented itself.

The biggest problem in Finland is Wolves. Their numbers have increased greatly and are now in areas all year round, not just during winter months. The increase has come from Russia, plus there are severe penalties for shooting a Wolf in Finland. However special licences are issued from time to time if there is a threat to human life by a Wolf entering a village or populated area. In my friends area they have hammered the Whitetail population. And Moose are becoming hard to find too.

I've no doubt the shoot shovel and shut up scenario is undertaken from time to time, but the fines and jail time are very severe. Wolverine are also protected in Finland, or were when I last visited.

Wolves are spreading across Europe, they are even in Holland and Belgium, it wont be long before their up against the channel?

WW. said:

Eagles taking calves I presume?

Click to expand...

Yes

And wolverine taking them during the snow of winter, amazing when you consider the size difference between a wolverine and a reindeer

Wolverine are predator machines. Some very impressive taxidermy from where we go in Norway.

Introduce them to the UK and some wolves, should help sort the issue you guys south of the wall can’t get on top of your deer