Our friends: the reindeers!
Our friends: The reindeers!
Finland has lots of features that come to your mind in first place: It is the happiest country in the world, there is a lot of cold, people eat lots of sweets here… but the most iconic one that comes to the mind of most people is that in Lapland, there is the Santa Claus Village.
And, do you know what does it mean? Reindeers!
Reindeers are really famous animals in Lapland and are the helpers of Santa Claus to bring to the kits their presents on Christmas Say. We are going to talk more about them as a tribute for all the work they are doing during Christmas time!
What is a reindeer exactly?
A reindeer is an animal that belongs to Cervidae family, with includes deers, reindeers, mooses and other species. Their characteristic that differenciate them from another animals is that their legs are really long and separate from the body, plus the hoofs are divided in two hemispheres.
But, a deer and a reindeer are not same, they have some difference between each other.
How to distinguish a deer and a reindeer
Is pretty normal to confuse a reindeer with a deer. They look pretty similar, specially in photos and are really elusive creatures, as they were afraid from humans during several centuries.
They belong to the same biological group, but have some differences: Let´s see them.
- The reindeers have an extraordinary sight compared with deers and other species, as they can see ultraviolet light.
- We can only see females with horns in the reindeers, the female deers don´t have horns at all and only the males have horns.
- The deer can live in lots of areas in the world: Middle East, Middle West, America, Asia, while the reindeer only lives in the northern areas as Scandinavian countries.
- This explains the difference in their fur: Reindeer´s fur could be white or black, and is determined by their bloodline, whereas the reindeer´s fur uses white dots as camouflage. Furthermore, their hair are more orange than reindeers.
Antlers or horns?
If you thought that reindeers grew antlers don´t worry, is pretty normal to not distinguish antlers and horns.
The antlers are an extension of theskull of the animal, and in all cases, inside they are part of the circulatory system of the animal! They are covered by blood in order to make them grow with the animal!
On the other hand, horns are also an extension of the skull but it is keratinized, similar to the cover that we have in our nails in order to protect it. While the antlers, like reindeers, falls and grow again the next year, horns are maintained all the life of the animal.
Reindeers as a source of value
It is said that you should never ask someone´s salary, as it seems pretentious or showy in front of other people. Reindeers work exactly in the same way in Finland: You should never ask a farmer which is their reindeer quantity! They understand it in the same way!
Reindeers are considered a tremendously valuable creature as they are limited and they are part of a profession that is inherited from family member to family member, some of them with more than five centuries of story.
How do they maintain the reindeers?
As they are half pets half sauvage animals, they should have their own time in nature in order to stay healthy, so, what are doing the farmers to keep them healthy and in good shape?
They are free during summertime.
As they need to train their muscles, they liberate them in the nature to readapt them with strength and energy for the winter. They should not be a lot of time without moving as they will be acumulating fat for very long.
But how do they recover them from the nature?
They have different marks on their ears in order to identify them: There is a website called “The Reindeers Herders Association” where you can find more information about the families than have been more time working in reindeer business and taking care of them.
If a farmer from another region in Lapland identifies a Lapland reindeer, they use the website or the old book (which is only available between them) with the marks and contact information. In that case, they go to the area where it was located and they capture it together by orienting him to a bench, were they can move it to it´s original farm without using chemicals or harming it.
More info here:
https://paliskunnat.fi/reindeer-herders-association/advisory/earmarks/
Reindeers: Freedom and protection
Even reindeers are around all Finland, they have aspecial tendency to move to the north. This is so true that the legislation have decided to put the vast majority of the farms in the north of the country, some of them reaching more than 10000 reindeers per owner.
When they don´t know what to do what to do with them, they can sell them in an special market that they have to change the property of the reindeers, so they can use them for the tourism or to procreate.
