Smaller reindeer
When I first went to Aviemore in the Cairngorm mountains in 1999 I had trouble driving up the road to the old Ski lift in the rain because Reindeer herds blocked my way. When I returned with more of my family in 2011 a new funicular was there was now a special place to see and to pet the reindeer provided by volunteers at a barn with reindeer rides on Santa's Sleighs. However, there didn't seem to be the wild herds of reindeer anymore there (at least as far as I could see). (Aviemore is in Scotland up in the Cairngorm Mountains area where there is a ski funicular to ride up and ski now).
Begin quote from:
OSLO
Reindeer are shrinking on an Arctic island near the North Pole in a
side-effect of climate change that has curbed winter food for animals
often depicted as pulling Father Christmas' sleigh, scientists said on …
1 day ago
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Santa
might need a few more reindeer to pull his sleigh this year because of
new evidence that the animals are shrinking. Arctic reindeer are
becoming smaller and lighter due to the impact of climate change on
their food …
The Scotsman · 21 hours ago
Times of India · 5 hours ago
Climate
change may be doing more than shrinking ice caps and raising sea ... in
the summer have also meant that the number of reindeer on …
Santa's reindeer are shrinking which could spell disaster for the delivery of our Christmas presents
Santa might need a few more reindeer to pull his sleigh this year after new evidence has emerged that the animals are shrinking. Poor Rudolph.
Arctic reindeer are becoming smaller and lighter due to the impact of climate change on their food supplies, say scientists.
Over a period of 16 years between 1994 and 2010 the weight of adult reindeer studied in Svalbard – a group of islands near the North Pole – fell by 12% from 55kg to just over 48kg.
Warm winters are producing more rain which then freezes on snow, covering the pasture beneath with an impenetrable layer of ice that the deer cannot break through.
As a result, female reindeer are going hungry and aborting their calves or giving birth to much lighter young, the scientists believe.
Lead researcher Professor Steve Albon, from the James Hutton Institute in Scotland, said: “The implications are that there may well be more smaller reindeer in the Arctic in the coming decades but possibly at risk of catastrophic die-offs because of increased ice on the ground.”
Another factor is thought to be a doubling of reindeer numbers over the past 20 years which has led to greater competition for food.
The findings were presented at the British Ecological Society’s annual meeting in Liverpool.
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