For any of you that have visited us on our Hill Trips at the end of last year, you may have noticed a young female hanging around us herders, ever hopeful that she can mooch some extra feed. She is a 5-year-old female called Bordeaux, who is very non-descript colour wise and was born in 2019 – which was the year we decided to name our reindeer after European places. She was born on the free range after her mother, Sika decided to go AWOL the day before we were due to bring the pregnant cows into our hill enclosure for the calving season. Doing this allows us to check that both cow and calf are healthy before sending them out to free range for the summer. But Sika must have known that a short stint in the hill enclosure was pending and decided it wasn’t how she wanted to spend the next couple of weeks!
Bordeaux’s mother is a sweet reindeer that is relatively independent. At the ripe old age of 16 she is now enjoying a retired life free ranging in the cairngorms. Both Bordeaux and her mother look very much alike, which helps me confidently ID at least one of the retired females out on the free range. To learn more about Sika have a read of Hen’s blog here.
In 2022 it was time for Bordeaux to continue her family line and she gave birth to a male calf in our hill enclosure. However, once out on the free-range Bordeaux sadly lost her calf – it is not unusual for first time mothers to lose their calves out on the free range, as reindeer build up resistance to some illnesses that they may encounter as they age. We found Bordeaux hanging around the ski road in rather poor condition, so we decided to bring her into our hill enclosure so we could fatten her up before the winter set in again.
Being a super quiet reindeer, Bordeaux always hung about on the sidelines, when food was being set out for the herd – suggesting she may have been quite low in the pecking order. This meant that us herders began to feel sorry for her and decided that we would give her extra feed on the Hill Trips too! It has been well over a year since we started feeding Bordeaux and it is very clear that she now expects extra food whenever she sees a herder. But in comparison to other reindeer, she is very polite about it (Editor’s note: Usually. She did kick Hen earlier this year when demanding food…). She has opted for the puppy dog eyes and patient wait tactic, which of course we can’t ignore because she is being so sweet about it!
Another tactic I’ve noticed her doing is to stare at you from afar – there have been a few times now that I have noticed her keeping surveillance on the white bag and as soon as you go to feed another reindeer, she is straight in there too. I’ve also been told that she can be quite pushy and rude with Hen, which I find quite hard to believe – Sorry Hen! (Editor’s note: Hen insists this is absolutely true!). So even now that she is in better condition, we still slip her the odd mouthful of feed as she is a super sweet lass, and it is great to have her around.
So, there it is, a little history on a fairly popular little reindeer that has brought lots of you wonderful visitors a large amount of joy with the added pleasure of some lovely pictures!
Amy