Tag: Amur

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Photo Blog: July 2025

July has been a good month with the reindeer finally starting to look good in their short sleek coats. We’ve some very hot days, but the reindeer have very faired well. They felt the heat on occasions but thankfully have ways off cooling down, I actually think they dealt with it better than me! Check out this old blog to see how the reindeer cope in higher temperatures.

We’ve been busy with three Hill Trips every weekday, and two on weekends. The Paddocks has also been popular and behind-the-scenes there are exciting things going on in the Exhibition. We still don’t have an opening date, but things have progressed well in the last couple of weeks. Exciting! Here’s some pics of some of our lovely male reindeer taken over the past month…

1st of July: Cicero sporting a brilliant ‘wig’!
2nd of July: Hemp, Earl Grey and Yukon posing beautifully.
2nd of July: Magnum, Amur and Espresso having a lie-down after a Hill Trip.
8th of July: The herd heading for breakfast.
9th of July: It’s so hard to take photos at this time of the year as the boys are so busy grazing with their heads down! Spartan and Kulfi are the two boys with their heads up, and white noses.
10th of July: Kernel’s lovely nose.
10th of July: A morning training session with Caz and Kate.
11th of July: The boys on a hot day, all standing with their feet in a bog to help them cool off. Cappuccino coming over to say hello.
12th of July: No reindeer pics today, but I did take one at the river where Kate and I went for a wee paddle to cool off after a hot Hill Trip!
14th of July: Earl Grey looking cute. The colour difference between his winter and summer coat is really noticeable.
15th of July: Tub lunging for a feed bag.
18th of July: Zoom leading the herd in for their breakfast.
19th of July: Cuppa coming in for his close up. He’s now looking great in his short sleek summer coat.
20th of July: Another morning training some of our wonderful future ‘Christmas reindeer’.
22nd of July: Too close Scoop!
23rd of July: Tiree and Fraoch helping with the morning duties.
24th of July: Kulfi’s lovely white face.

Ruth

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Photo Blog: June 2025

June is the scruffy reindeer month! Perhaps, not their most photogenic season but still a wonderful time of year and I still managed to take lots of photos of course to fill the monthly photo blog . The cows and calves are all free ranging in the hills and we have around half our males in our hill enclosure here, growing lovely antlers and meeting our visitors.

1st of June: Elbe still with almost a full winter coat, but you can see the short summer coat around his eyes and on his nose. The ears back look is very common in Elbe’s family. His twin sister Alba also often has the same ears back rather grumpy expression!
3rd of June: Dr Seuss with his pink nose! Every June his old winter coat falls out completely before his summer coat grows through.
6th of June: Bond looking majestic! Sadly the very next day he had broken his antler and now looks a little less majestic.
8th of June: No reindeer, but a lovely view from the side of Silver Mount looking down towards Glenmore and Loch Morlich with the lovely cotton grass in the foreground.
9th of June: 99 sporting his yellow sun block!
9th of June: The handsome Akubra coming to say hello.
11th of June: On a warm day the boys can go back to the gate and cause a bit of a road blockage for our visitors wanting to leave!
11th of June: Trying to get a decent photo for social media to announce the arrive of our 2026 calendar. This is me showing Amur his page in the calendar.
14th of June: Choc-ice finding a good chin rest for a snooze.
14th of June: After a rainy night, Lupin looks incredibly shaggy – his winter coat is coming off in big dreadlocks!
14th of June: What a motley crew. From R-L we have 99, Rocket and Dr Seuss.
17th of April: Druid doing his best ‘wooing’ face after the Hill Trip. He’s quite a shy reindeer but after a Hill Trip he comes looking for the white bag and wins the hearts of our visitors!
18th of June: Scoop is looking very smart in his short summer coat.
18th of June: Busby lying down and looking very handsome after a Hill Trip.
19th of June: Harness training with some of our male reindeer.
20th of June: A sunny Hill Trip!
25th of June: Butter, one of last year’s breeding bulls, growing a lovely set of antlers.
25th of June: Morse has also been a breeding bull in his day, but is now one of ‘Christmas reindeer’ trained to harness.
26th of June: Ärta looking very scruffy.
26th of June: Paddock swap day! Taking the Paddock boys back up the hill.

Ruth

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A free range mission…

A lot of our work focuses on our herd here on Cairngorm, but a lot of you will know that we have a secondary site, and it is always lovely to get out that way to help Tilly! Recently Sheena and I went on a free-range mission to move a group of reindeer that were just out of our boundary line. The group of reindeer we were moving included some older girls and three young bulls, I have compiled some pictures of the outing for the reindeer’s wonderful adopters. The group were initially grazing in two separate groups but once we had called them, the reindeer joined up and made their way up hill towards us.

Distant girls coming to our call.
The young bulls – Nile, Amur, and Choc-ice.
Jenga with two of our more cautious girls behind, Ladybird and Silk.

Once the group of reindeer were level with us, we had time for a little catch up and some close-up pics…

Jenga and Lace looking good and enjoying a peaceful winter.
The lovely Diamond, one of the sweetest reindeer in the herd.
Gazelle will be 17 in the spring – she’s looking good for an old girl!
14-year-old Caterpillar and 2-year-old Amur.
Choc-ice will be three in the spring so as a maturing bull has already cast his antlers.

We soon moved the small herd to where they were meant to be – time definitely got away from us!

Amy hard at work with 16-year-old Ibex on a halter and 14-year-old Lace in the background. Look at all that yummy lichen to keep them happy!

Amy

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Photo Blog: December 2023

On the last Friday of each month throughout 2023 I have shared photos that I’ve taken on my phone to hopefully give everyone an idea of the goings on at the Reindeer Centre. What a complete mix bag of photos this is to finish the year off! December has seen me up and down the A9 and dotting around locally with beautiful teams of reindeer for lots of Christmas events. I’ve done the odd day at the Centre too catching up with the goings on here, with just enough office time to put together this blog. My wonderful colleagues have also been ridiculously busy on events and at the Centre keeping everything going. Getting through gazillions of adoptions packs, leading fully booked Hill Trips and of course Christmas Fun in the Paddocks. This selection of photos doesn’t really do December justice, but it’s a snap shot of what I’ve been up to at least.

30th of November: Couldn’t resist including this one from November. Moving our free ranging herd in the snow!
1st of December: Cassie feeding the calves out of the bag.
2nd of December: Very chilled out reindeer in Aberfeldy after a short parade. In the team we have Dr Seuss, Frost, Haricot, Lupin, Colorado and Limpopo.
4th of December: After two nights away here’s the same team as above returning to the snowy hills.
10th of December: Stenoa and Olympic posing at the front posing with Santa and a pantomime crew.
11th of December: Seven month old calves Colorado and Ob sharing the same puddle.
12th of December: Amazon needing a chin rest.
12th of December: Bordeaux’s beard blowing beautifully in a cold Cairngorm breeze!
15th of December: Walking a team of reindeer out of the enclosure for a local event at the Aviemore Ice Rink.
16th of December: Herder Melanie and I attend a wedding with reindeer at Raemoir House near Banchory. Here they are eating lunch before meeting the bride and groom.
17th of December: A day at Reindeer House for me and spending as much time on the hill as possible! This is the gorgeous Marple and her daughter Mekong with matching billowing beards on the afternoon Hill Trip.
17th of December: The lovely Chickpea has had an excellent year and is in fab condition.
18th of December: Olympic showing off his lack of top teeth at a visit to a primary school in Aberdeen.
22nd of December: Our team very settled at Gleneagles Hotel. From left to right we’ve got Mississippi, Aztec, LX and Olympic.
23rd of December: Mississippi being especially cute!
25th of December: Before spending a few hours in the display pen each day, we take the the the boys for a good walk each morning so they can stretch their legs. For reindeer this means stopping at every tree to have a nibble at the lichen! Here’s Aztec getting some tasty Christmas Day snacks.
28th of December: Turtle and her calf Amur on the hill.
28th of December: Isla’s last day of work (although I’m sure she’ll be back at some point!) so here she is spoiling Alba, one of our hand-reared calves.

Ruth

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