All of the reindeer in our herd are great, of course. But the reindeer we usually shout about are the big breeding bulls, the sweet little calves, a trusty Christmas reindeer or a female who stands out from the rest. In today’s blog I’m going to chat about some of our old girls. They have bred some wonderful calves over the years and guided the herd around the vast Cairngorm Mountains teaching the younger females along the way. Now they are too old to breed so now they live their life on the free range for about 90% of the year as there is no reason for them to be in our mountain enclosure which we use for management purposes such as calving or the rutting season. The 10% they do come into our enclosure is for routine vaccines and check-ups.
These old girls are: Fern (aged 17), Sika (16), Sambar (16), Gazelle (16), Ibex (16), Pavlova (15), Oatcake (15), Ryvita (15) and Hobnob (15). Although they don’t look quite as spritely as they did a few years ago, equally, they don’t look like they’re going anywhere in the near future.
The oldest reindeer we’ve ever had in the herd got to 19 years old and Fern is only 4 months from her 18th birthday so she’s doing amazingly. She’s such a sweet old lady and a firm favourite amongst us herders. Then there are 4 others hot on her heels at only 1 year younger. 2008 must have been a pretty special year with strong genetics to have this many getting to such a good age. Then we have 2009 when we named the reindeer after cakes biscuits and puddings and we still have four females from that year. Ryvita recently has been acting granny as a couple of months ago she landed herself with a small herd of young females who where on the free range with her but I’m sure she kept them all in check. She was certainly boss, and quite right too!
Considering reindeer live on average 12-14 years these cows are doing just great! I always think if a reindeer gets to over 10 years old they are doing well as they live such a harsh life especially in the middle of winter. Winters in Scotland aren’t quite as harsh as those across the world where other reindeer herds live so I suspect as a result we have a higher average age in our herd.
So cheers to the old girls in our herd. What a wonderful bunch of reindeer you are and thanks for being the role models to the youngsters following in your hoof prints.
Fiona
Lovely to hear about the older ones , do you still have Pagan ?
We don’t I’m afraid 🙁 But we do have her daughters Pumpkin and Winnie, son Zap, and Pumpkin’s daughter Lapsang, so the family is still well-represented!
Fiona –
What a wonderful blog! I always learn something new and appreciate the work that all of you do. These Old Girls definitely deserved a blog all about them 🙂 I’m still learning who is Mamma and Grandmamma to who. And absolutely loved the dedication picture of Okapi with the rainbow in the background. My heart just dropped.
Thank you