Balmoral – The Cairngorm Reindeer Herd

18th September 202012th September 2020

Reindeer impressions

A few weeks back we asked on social media for short stories from visitors about special memories of meeting the reindeer, or perhaps what the reindeer mean to them. When you work with them daily, it’s sometimes easy to forget just how special meeting them can be, and sometimes it’s good to be reminded of that! Here’s a few contributions, with more to follow in the future.

D’Cruz family – Wirral: As a family we have had many memorable treks (9!), but the one in 2015 was extra special. Our herder that year was Mel who had been hand rearing orphaned calf Fergus, so not only did we all get to lead our own reindeer but Fergus decided to join us too. He just trotted along by our sides mingling in and out of the other reindeer for the whole trek which made our memorable experience even more special and we even got to give him his bottle as we rejoined the rest of the herd.

Trekking with (left to right) Atlantic, Balmoral, Laptev, Grunter and wee Fergus leading the way!

Rebecca – Oxfordshire: Deer and reindeer have always been my favourite animals. So, when I discovered the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd existed, I vowed to myself I would visit. A year and a half later, in August 2019, my wish came true! I arrived at the Centre nearly two hours early to make sure I got a place on the Hill Trip – and it was worth the wait! Definitely one of the most memorable aspects of my Scottish Highlands visit. (I have since adopted Origami the reindeer – looks like a return trip is inevitable…)

Up in the hill enclosure on the Hill Trip

Clare – Kettering: My first proper Hill Trip was in April 2013 with Deborah. I enjoyed it so much that we went again in September 2013 and that’s when it all started! I met and then adopted Svalbard! After posting a photo on the Herd’s Facebook page, Carola commented, saying she adopted him too. We then became friends on FB which was lovely. Then through Carola I became friends with Candice after chatting about reindeer on FB too. Candice came up with the idea of having a ‘Group’ meet up in October 2014 and that’s when I met Michelle, Graham, Maggie, Steve, Beth, Brody, Gwenda and Gordon. Since then the gang has grown, Deborah joined in the fun and then we met Belinda and Martin too. It’s been great to meet up on various Hill Trips and events together and share our love for the reindeer. We have a really special friendship and it’s all thanks to the reindeer and herders.

At the start of our group Hill Trip a couple of years back. Complete with guide Dave dressed for the occasion!

Jessica – Ontario, Canada
Best day of my life! We stopped on the way to Skye to feed the Reindeer Herd. The hill was snowy, windy, we were soaking wet from head to toe, but it was GORGEOUS! None of it mattered. We had never met reindeer before and it was life changing. To feel so connected with nature and we felt a mutual respect between us and the Reindeer. It was beautiful and we will never forget the experience.

If you’d like to be involved in a future blog, please email/message us (FAO Hen) with your contribution of a small bit of text and preferably a photo too!

3rd March 201713th March 2024

Spring Buds

If I was a gardener I would be looking out for the first signs of spring, daffodils pushing out of the ground and buds beginning to form on the trees. But I’m not. I’m a reindeer herder so the buds of spring I look out for are the newly growing reindeer antlers which begin to grow first among the mature bulls.

Yearling reindeer Fly a few years ago, with new antlers just starting to ‘bud’.

Having lost their old antlers at the end of last year our mature bulls, like Balmoral, Bovril and Pera have spent the last few months antlerless which is not a good place to be because with no antlers you are at the bottom of the peck order. Even the wee calves, only 10 months old, still have their antlers and can boss any antlerless reindeer around!

Fly a few days ago having cast an antler a little early, and presumably with ‘help’ from another reindeer. Antlers cast naturally in Spring don’t normally bleed.

Mature bull reindeer grow the largest antlers in the herd and so to achieve this they need to start growing their antlers early. Despite still being winter here the bulls will divert food resources to growing these new antlers and this week I have just noticed the first buds of velvet antler appearing on their heads.

crann-08 — Mature bull Crann in his heydey, with antlers starting to grow long before the end of winter.

Velvet antler is the fastest growing living tissue in the animal kingdom and from nothing on their heads these bull reindeer will have fully grown antlers, measuring up to 1 metre in length and weighing anything up to 10kg by the middle of August. Although the rate of growth will be slow just now, by the spring/summer the antlers visibly grow each day, with a growth rate of about 1cm/day.

crann-0510 — Crann in May with half-grown antlers…

crann-0810 — …and in August the same year, with full grown antlers.

Antlers are entirely composed of bone and to grow need a blood supply to the growing tip. The blood supply is carried by the velvet skin covering the developing bone and the velvet skin also acts as a protective cover. The velvet is also full of nerves, which make the growing antlers sensitive to contact, so protecting the soft growing tissue from injury.

Because the blood is so close to the surface the antlers always feel warm and radiate considerable heat. Indeed some scientists suggest that the antlers are important radiators of heat that help reindeer to ‘keep cool’ in the summer time.

The ultimate size of the bulls antlers depends on a number of factors but genetics and nutrition are the most important ones. The more they eat the bigger their antlers grow and if they come from parents who grew big antlers then they will more than likely grow large ones themselves. Crann has grown the biggest antlers ever in our herd and that is partly due to his parentage, his mother Burgundy grew extremely big antlers for a female. But also Crann has an insatiable appetite, always there for extra food, despite being an old reindeer now!

Tilly

14th October 201613th March 2024

The Rut

3-bulls — Balmoral (left), Ost (centre) and Bandy (hiding on the right)

It’s an exciting time of year here at the Reindeer Centre as we are now well into the rut. Our main breeding bulls are looking fantastic with their bony antlers, thick necks and chubby bellies. The girls are also looking brilliant after a summer out on the free-range getting lots of tasty morsels and running around on the hills.

ost — Youngest bull Ost looking gorgeous

We’ve now got a few bulls in our enclosure with their selected cows and are hoping that they do their one and only job well and we will have lots of babies next year. As most of you know, our herd numbers around 150 and we like to keep it that way. We use the enclosure during the rut to manage our bulls and cows to make sure we get enough calves, but not too many. The single cows we are not breeding from, such as Lilac, Tuppence, Fonn and co., are put out onto the free-range and politely told to go and fend for themselves. Females with calves are kept separate from the bulls, but still in the enclosure. As well as the rut, we are currently halter training the calves so we need them on the hill, but we give most of the mums a year off between calves.

Bandy strutting his stuff with his girls

There are roughly 4 large parts in total to the enclosure. The cows and calves have one, and the other three each contain one main bull, his cows and sometimes a couple of castrates and young bulls. The three main bulls in the enclosure this year are Balmoral, Bandy and Ost. We have a couple of castrates and young bulls in with the main bull to keep him fit and on his toes. Whilst the castrates and young bulls will never challenge the main bull for dominance, he will chase them away from his ladies if he feels they are getting a little too close for comfort. It keeps our younger boys in check and means our bulls work off that belly they have been building over the summer.

We also have a bull, Bovril, out on the Cromdales with some younger girls. He’s a very lovely boy and his antlers have been cut off (like getting a hair cut when the antlers have hardened!) so he is not too much of a worry if you come across him. Recently Tilly had a very long walk when Bovril’s 8 cows turned up on the road between Bridge of Brown and Tomintoul! I think Bovril was too fat to follow the girls so hopefully they have been reunited up on the hills and he is keeping them in check now.

balmoral-peeing — Balmoral peeing on his legs to make himself extra-attractive to the cows… men out there, please note that this doesn’t work for women!

Hopefully the boys will perform and next year we will have lots of cute little babies again!

Imogen

16th October 20159th March 2024

Introducing the bulls

Since some of our female reindeer finally decided to join us at the hill enclosure, the rut has got underway. We use different sections of our 1,200 acre hill enclosure to help us manage the bulls during the rut, as it would be complete chaos if we just put them all in together and left them to get on with it! By splitting each bull with a small group of females, everything is a bit more relaxed and the big lads feel less at risk of losing their girls. We do, however, let some of the younger, smaller bulls “have a go” by letting them remain in with a big bull, and if they manage to sneak a female away and have their wicked way, then good for them. Of course, most of the time, they don’t stand a chance!

Swedish Gandi with his distinctive white nose

This year we have quite a few bulls who may be getting a chance to spread their genetics in the herd. As usual, most of these are of Swedish descent. Whilst we keep a record of the parentage of each calf born here, it is a lot easier to prevent inbreeding and promote genetic diversity if we use bulls that we know aren’t related to anyone else. Bovril, Gandi, Boxer, Nutti, Pera and Bandy all started their lives in Sweden, before joining our herd in 2011. After we have bred from them for a few years, they will join our Christmas team and live out the rest of their life as a part of the Cairngorm herd.

Bovril and Gandi are perhaps the biggest and most impressive of the boys this year, especially Bovril as he is black in colour, and whilst he’s actually very sweet natured, when he’s strutting his stuff and chasing away the other males he can look extremely intimidating! Pera is another black reindeer, but is slightly smaller than Bovril. He is easily recognised due to having rather bizarre antlers – the top points point forwards rather than backwards. As antler shape is determined genetically, it will be interesting to see what the antlers of Pera’s offspring turn out like!

Boxer is another dark coloured reindeer, but Nutti is much lighter and has a white nose, as does Gandi. Bandy is the one right in the middle – what we would call a “normal” colour. He’s quite a slight build and a bit less scary than the other big bulls, but is perfectly capable of holding a group of females.

BoxNutBand — A range of different colours: dark coloured Boxer, normal coloured Bandy and white-nosed Nutti

Of our Scottish born bulls, three-year-old Balmoral is the biggest and most impressive. He comes from a great family line – Fly is his mum – and his family has a good record for producing big strong calves with large antlers, so hopefully any offspring he fathers will inherit these traits. A few of the younger bulls may also get a look in – notably Cambozola, Mo and Atlantic are convinced that they are handsome enough to win over any female… its just a case of whether they can steal them away from the big lads or not!

CamMoAtl — The Young Hopefuls: Cambozola, Mo and Atlantic

Watching the bulls performing is always entertaining – unlike the red deer stags who roar their challenge at other males, reindeer bulls merely grunt. They also lick their lips, pee on their hind legs and generally swagger around thinking they’re the bees knees. Personally, they remind me of drunken lads out on the town, but they do seem to have some degree of success at impressing the cows. Quite how successful will only be proven next year in May!

Andi