Finnish forest reindeer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Finnish forest reindeer |
|
|---|---|
.jpg) |
|
Scientific classification  |
|
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Cervidae |
| Subfamily: | Capreolinae |
| Genus: | Rangifer |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: |
R. t. fennicus
|
| Trinomial name | |
| Rangifer tarandus fennicus (Lönnberg, 1909)
|
|
The Finnish forest reindeer (Rangifer tarandus fennicus) is a special kind of reindeer that lives in Finland and northwestern Russia. People also call it the European forest reindeer. These reindeer are quite rare. You can mostly find them in Russian Karelia and parts of Finland like North Karelia, Savonia, and Kainuu. Some even travel into central south Finland.
Finnish forest reindeer are different from the smaller, semi-domesticated mountain reindeer. They are much bigger and prefer to live in thick boreal forests, where humans rarely see them. Mountain reindeer, on the other hand, like open tundra areas. These forest reindeer often travel between Russia and Finland as the seasons change.
Contents
How Big Are They?
The Finnish forest reindeer is one of the largest types of reindeer. An adult can be about 180 to 220 centimeters (about 6 to 7 feet) long. Their tail is short, only about 10 to 15 centimeters (4 to 6 inches) long.
Male reindeer are bigger than females. An adult male can weigh between 150 and 250 kilograms (about 330 to 550 pounds). Females are lighter, weighing around 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds). They have long legs, wide hooves, and V-shaped antlers. These features help them move easily through deep snow and dense forests.
Where They Live and Their Status
A long time ago, in the 1600s, Finnish forest reindeer lived all over Finland and western Russia. But over time, too much hunting, reindeer farming, and changes to their forest homes caused their numbers to drop a lot. By the late 1800s, they were almost gone from Finland. In Russia, they also disappeared from many areas for similar reasons.
However, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, some Finnish forest reindeer from Kainuu, Finland, were moved to Salamajärvi National Park in central Finland. This helped start new populations. Today, about 1,000 of them also live in Southern Ostrobothnia. While their numbers have been slowly growing in Finland, some experts think that a growing population of wolves might be slowing down their recovery.
In 2013, researchers from Finland and Russia started working together to study these rare reindeer. They use special collars with telemetry tags that send signals to satellites. This helps them track the reindeer and learn more about their movements.
Experts estimate that there are between 850 and 3,000 Finnish forest reindeer in Finland. For example, a count done by helicopter in Finland's Kainuu region found 793 reindeer. There are also about 1,000 in the Suomenselkä area and a few dozen near the towns of Ähtäri and Lieksa. The Finnish Ministry of the Environment considers this subspecies to be "Near Threatened." This means they are not in immediate danger, but their numbers are low enough to be a concern.
WildForestReindeerLIFE Project
A big project called WildForestReindeerLIFE started in Finland in 2016 and will last for seven years. This project is managed by Wildlife Service Finland and gets funding from the LIFE Programme. One of its main goals is to bring Finnish forest reindeer back to their old homes in the Suomenselkä region.
The Lauhanvuori and Seitseminen national parks were chosen as places to release the reindeer. The first animals were set free in 2019. These reindeer came from Kainuu and from Finnish zoos like Korkeasaari Zoo, Ähtäri Zoo, and Ranua Zoo. Zoo staff also help plan the daily care for the reindeer living in special enclosures and provide veterinary help.
Reindeer in Zoos
There are about 150 Finnish forest reindeer living in 25 zoos across Europe. These zoo animals are very important because they have made the WildForestReindeerLIFE reintroduction project in Finland possible.
Since 1998, the Finnish forest reindeer has been part of a special plan by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) to manage their population. In 2020, they were added to the EAZA Ex-situ Programme (EEP). This program helps make sure there's a healthy population of these animals in zoos, which can also help with conservation efforts in the wild. The person who coordinates this program works at Korkeasaari Zoo in Helsinki.
Other Woodland Reindeer Around the World
The boreal woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in Canada is another type of forest-dwelling reindeer. Like the Finnish forest reindeer, they also tend to avoid humans. Their populations are also decreasing, and in 2002, they were listed as a threatened species by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). This shows that many forest-dwelling reindeer species around the world face similar challenges.
Images for kids
-
A Finnish forest reindeer family.
- A deer grazing
- Deer on a swamp
