It’s time for another trip into the (fairly recent) past with a look back to Gazelle. Born in 2008, I don’t actually have much memory of her as a calf, other than her being a strapping big lass – no doubt helped by the fact she had two mums. Alongside her natural mum Haze, Flake fed her too, having lost her own calf and presumably decided Gazelle would do instead. Haze was a legend in her own right, a big strong reindeer who bred many fabulous offspring over her long life, including Caddis, mum of current herd stalwart Christie.
Although I don’t remember much of her first year, I do clearly remember bumping into sixteen-month old Gazelle near the summit of Cairn Gorm along with a wee group of cows however and being surprised at how bold and friendly she was compared to the other cows in the group.
Gazelle turned into one of those reliable, steady members of the herd that everyone liked. She was tame, friendly but not pushy, and generally a gentle reindeer – I don’t particularly remember her as a bully to other reindeer at any point (a real trait with female reindeer – they can be surprisingly horrible to each other at times).
She became an excellent breeding female too, producing a succession of lovely calves. Having her first at the young age of two (a wee female who ultimately didn’t survive long term), she then went on to have boys only – Bolt, Aztec, Burns, Athens and Adzuki. The ‘A’ team are all still with us today – Aztec making it into the elite list of reindeer chosen as the ‘highlighted’ reindeer for our most recent newsletter. Her calves seemed to get bigger year on year – Aztec is average-sized, Athens is a big reindeer and Adzuki is a giant!
Female reindeer live to around 12-14 years on average in our herd, but Gazelle sailed on right through to just shy of age 18, only really looking her age in the last year or two. She had just got to the point where we made the decision that the time was right to put her down in the interest of her own best welfare, when she slipped away herself overnight – ending her days on her own terms.
Hen