The
Sami are the people who live in the northern portions of Scandinavia,
an area that is sometimes called Lapland.
Reindeer
are important to the Sami way of life; they use reindeer meat, hides,
milk, and antlers, and they use reindeer to pull pulks (sleds) and
for general transport. Every year the Sami have to round up their
herds to count, sort, slaughter, and mark their reindeer. At the end
of the round-up, the town of Inari, Finland, hosts a special
competition. Men and women put on their cross-country skis and
compete to herd 100 reindeer over a course that is two kilometers
(more than three miles) long.
A
Reindeer Primer
Did
you know that reindeer are caribou, and caribou are reindeer? The two
names for the same species reflects the fact that this Arctic and
sub-Arctic deer lives in the northern parts of North America, Europe,
and Asia. The North American reindeer are called “caribou,” and
the Eurasian caribou are called “reindeer.”
In
most populations of reindeer/caribou, both males and females grow
antlers. Typically, antlers are larger in males, and in some
populations females don't have antlers. (Females of all other deer
species, including moose, have no antlers at all.)
Like
other deer, reindeer/caribou lose their antlers every year and have
to grow them back. Antlers are the fastest-growing bones of all the
mammals—and they have to grow fast especially for reindeer! Male
antlers have to grow up to 40 inches wide and 53 inches long, in just
a short time! (That's 100 cm wide and 135 cm long! We're talking more
than four feet of bone grown in just a few months!) Reindeer/caribou
antlers are the largest of any deer except moose.
 |
| Male reindeer also use their antlers to "fight" for the right to mate with females. |
Reindeer/caribou
use their antlers to clear away snow so that they can find and eat
plants underneath.
To
learn more about reindeer/caribou, check out National Geographic Kids.
To
learn more about the Sami, check out this earlier post.
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on this date:
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