Manouk popped into Reindeer House a wee while ago and had picked up this book from a charity shop in Aviemore. It is the Forestry Commission guidebook for ‘Glen More Forest Park’ and has no date on it but was published sometime in the 70s. It has a section about the Cairngorm Reindeer. I had a flick through it and thought others might enjoy the prints and information about the reindeer which was written by Dr Ethel Lindgren (who along with Mikel Utsi, reintroduced the reindeer herd in 1952).
Things have changed a lot in the last 50 years or so. You may read that back in the day some of the reindeer born in the Cairngorms were sold elsewhere and some of them even used for meat. You’ll all be pleased to hear that for a long time now, all of the reindeer born in our herd have been able to live out their natural lifespan (roughly 12-14 years) here in the Cairngorms. Nowadays, we keep our numbers at roughly 150 by controlling how many females we run with a bull during the rut and therefore how many calves we hope will be born each spring time. Below is the article, some photos of the reindeer, as well as some beautiful prints of the Cairngorms. Enjoy!
Lotti