Whilst wondering what to write about, I happened to flick back through some of our old photos, and Lilibet’s familiar face made me smile, so I thought I’d talk a little about her, as she was such a character in the herd.
Lilibet was born in 2002, to mum Glacier, one of the lightest coloured reindeer in the herd. As a young calf, she was brown in colour with a white forehead, which suggested she would turn white as she grew into her adult coat. White reindeer are relatively unusual in our herd, but Lilibet was a proper chip off the old block, and almost the spitting image of her mum. Glacier was a very friendly reindeer and taught her calves to be the same – usually when youngsters see mum marching determinedly towards humans and their bags of feed, they follow suit! Glacier had many calves over the course of her life, several of which were white, and one of which, Blondie, is pure white (leucistic) with blue eyes. 2002 was our 50th anniversary, and it was also the Queen’s golden jubilee, so Lilibet was named with the Queen’s nickname.
Lilibet went on to have several calves of her own, and has also passed on the “white” genetics to her own calves. Oryx was born in 2008, in the theme of “antlered and horned animals” and was light coloured with a pure white face. He was the first of a trend for Lilibet’s calves – we try to make links with mothers where possible to help us remember who’s related to who – so all of Lilibet’s calves ended up beginning with the letter “O”. Light coloured Oreo and Origami followed in 2009 and 2011 respectively, but then there was a surprise in 2012 when her calf, Olympic, was one of the darkest of the year! He was the dark sheep of the family so to speak, but is a very lovely fellow!
Lilibet was always a character within the free-ranging herd, a real friendly face who was delighted to see us (well, the food bag anyway) and very dependable in following along to where you wanted the herd. She had a knack of worming her nose into the feed sack and proving incredibly difficult to extract!
As is the case with many of our lovely old females, Lili passed away out on the high tops over summer at the ripe old age of 14. It feels like the right way for them to go, in their natural habitat on the hills that they know so well. She’d been a wonderful member of the herd and her legacy lives on with her sons Oryx, Origami and Olympic still entertaining us with their great natures.
Andi
