Nicky’s first day/blog: Volunteering Winter 2017 /2018

Volunteering Winter 2017 /2018

Snowy tree

 

Last winter I had the amazing pleasure of volunteering at the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre for the first time.  After two poor winters, and by poor winters I mean that we had a lack of snow.  Most people in the UK would probably deem a good winter one with little snow.  But here in Aviemore and the Cairngorms, both as skiers and Reindeer Herders, a good winter is one with a plentiful supply of snow!  And preferably one with as little of the usual high winds as possible. Thankfully, this year, our snow dances were answered with a good supply of snow and a fairly long winter season.

View from Utsi’s Bridge

On the days I volunteered we had calf deep snow to trudge through and 60mph cross winds to battle through to find the Reindeer Herd first thing in the morning.  This was my first experience of seeing these magnificent animals in their natural environment out on the Free Range on the mountains.  This was also the first time I had the pleasure of hearing the traditional Sami call Reindeer Herders use to summon the Reindeer down from the mountains.  To my surprise the Reindeer weren’t sheltering in any of the Corrie’s out of the wind, but instead were standing on the most exposed ridges bearing the brunt of the strongest gusts of wind.   Once one of the Reindeer heard the recognisable call and started heading down from the ridge, being a herd animal, the rest soon followed.  Once they got up close I was most surprised by how much smaller they were than I expected.  We put out a line of food for the Reindeer on the snow, counted them and we checked them for their general health, as we do every time we go and see any members of the Herd.

The Allt Mor burn

While on my days volunteering I learned that this species of deer are extremely well adapted to the Sub-Arctic environment we have here in the Cairngorm Mountains, it is perfect Reindeer habitat with an abundance of their favourite foods.  So despite being cold and tired from hiking in the snow in the strong winds, I learned that, unlike myself, Reindeer are comfortable in temperatures of down to minus 30 degrees Celsius, and that the lowest temperature they have been known to survive in is minus 72 degrees C.

View across Utsis Bridge

In the afternoons of my volunteer days I was able to go along on some of the Hill Trips.  At most times of the year, a couple of times a day, one or two of the Reindeer Herders will guide a visit up onto the mountains to share their knowledge about the history of the herd, interesting facts about these incredible animals and, the bit that people seem to love the most,  hand-feeding these mostly gentle animals.  Like most mammals Reindeer have their own characters and personalities, which when it comes to feeding, usually draws out certain characteristics like bolshiness, being greedy or quite cheeky!  All of our Reindeer have names, so I was able to get some guidance on how to learn them, not only by getting to know their features but also by their lovely and quirky characters.

Photo – Bumble and the Herd in a windblown enclosure

Bumble – Andi and Chris’ favourite reindeer

 

At the end of my winter volunteering I was honoured to be offered a job working as a part time Reindeer Herder at the Centre starting in April 2018.

Reindeer Herder Chris, Visitors with their Cameras, and our beautiful photogenic Reindeer

Nicky

Diaries of yesteryear

Ever since the early days of the herd, there has been a “Daily Diary” written, keeping track of the movements of the reindeer, amounts fed, illness and veterinary care, visitors, weather and anything else of note. We still keep this up to this day, though throughout the years this has varied from handwritten to typewritten and now typed on a computer. It is an invaluable record for us, and also really interesting to look back through. I was looking through old records a while ago and started snapping photos of some humorous entries, which I thought were too good not to be shared:

Ah the joys of wet feet… Mikel Utsi on a bad day
All of the random visitors on one day!
Lucky sightings of a bird that’s rarely seen in the UK
Early sketches by Mikel Utsi, identifying the reindeer by their antler shape
Look at this funny looking calf!
In other news…
The standard menu for meals – breakfast sounds good, I’m less convinced by dinner…
Clearly a slow day for working with actual reindeer…

Andi

Poo or rock?

As reindeer herders, one of the first things we do in the morning is opening up the Paddocks. This includes cleaning out the exhibition areas, getting the dvds playing and, the best job of them all, clearing the grassy bits from reindeer poo. We start our day of work at 8 ‘o clock in the morning, which is not the best time of day for some of the herders (read: me). This quite often results in having to squad down to check if a targeted poo is indeed a poo, or if it was a rock posing as one. If you don’t believe me, try to play this game of “is it a poo or is it a rock?” and see how well you do!

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Answers

1: Rock

2: Rock

3: Poo

4: Rock

5: Manouk can’t remember/tell which one it is!

6:Rock

7: Poo

Svalbard

Svalbard: Born in early June 2011, Mother: Arnish

Svalbard was born in the year calves were named after Games and Puzzles, with other reindeer born that year including Hopscotch, Bingo, Monopoly and Jenga. Svalbard was originally named Meccano, however in the autumn of 2011 when he came back off the free-range as a 5-month-old calf we were so struck by his short legs and dumpy body that we nicknamed him Svalbard, after the short, fat reindeer found on the high Arctic island with that name, and it stuck.

Svalbard at around 8 months old

Now at seven and a half years old you could hardly describe Svalbard as short and dumpy. Maybe just rotund? Despite being a late born calf and coming back after the summer at 5 months old without his elderly mum Arnish (who must have died), Svalbard has matured into a really fine reindeer with, dare I say it, attitude.

Svalbard comes from a fine family of reindeer. His great-uncle was one of our favourite reindeer of years gone by, Gustav. His mother Arnish was a real character in the herd, who despite being antlerless all her life was certainly not disadvantaged by her lack of weapons on her head. She often took the initiative when it came to confrontations with antlered reindeer and invariably won!

Svalbard as a yearling

Although a dark reindeer Arnish was prone to producing light coloured calves and in particular white faced calves like Svalbard. Her daughter born in 2008, Addax, has a white face and has gone on to produce calf Parmesan, who has white markings too.

And finally Svalbard reminds many of us of Sven, the reindeer in the Disney film ‘Frozen’ and that says it all.

Tilly

What a handsome chap!
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