Reindeer around food

For anyone that has visited the reindeer on a Hill Trip, you’ll know that we do a small talk about the reindeer before we feed them. If I’m not the person chatting, I like to stand back and enjoy the mischief that the reindeer come up with when they’re getting impatient waiting for their food. There are a few techniques that the reindeer use to try and get their food early and I thought it would make an amusing blog for you wonderful readers.

The final talk on a Hill Trip where a herder introduces people to the reindeer and we aim to tell you about some of their fascinating adaptations for life in the sub Arctic. We can get very distracted by misbehaving reindeer!
The green feed bag is like a magnet for our reindeer! Here’s Mivvi following Sheena down the hill.

Considering that reindeer have epic senses of smell, it isn’t surprising that they can sniff out where the food is (and to be honest we don’t hide it either) their food is carried up to the reindeer in big green sacks, so they’re super obvious. If one of us (herders) is taking a Hill Trip by ourselves, we are conducting a talk whilst trying to deter reindeer snuffling about our feed bags, kicking our bags or even trying to bite through the bags! Which I suspect leads to great entertainment for our visitors. So having an extra pair of hands there is always appreciated. Now down to the good stuff…

The first technique is to kick the feed sack, obviously in the hopes that food may fall out. But as you can imagine those big feet can cause a bit of damage to our poor feed sacks. Whilst chatting away, you will have a group of keen reindeer pawing away at the bag which is really distracting!

The worst culprits for this are usually the yearlings as through the previous winter they received preferential feeding from the green sacks and I suspect they’re frustrated that they can’t now eat from the bags- quite rightly so, extra food is always awesome!

This photo is from early spring 2024 when the ‘black tags’ (those born in spring 2023) were still getting preferential food. It’s a tough lesson when they realise they’re not the youngest in the herd anymore and not invited into the bag anymore. Some learn pretty quickly. Others are still struggling with the concept after years (yes you, Holy Moley aged 4 and Dr Seuss aged 7).
The 2024 calves feeding out of the bag first this September – the poor black tags have a bit of a shock when they are shooed away!
Isla and Cassie allowing the calves in the bag first to feed whilst the adult reindeer have to wait for the food to go out on the ground. Hemp is up on his hind legs in the background – pushing another reindeer away and making sure he gets to stand as close as possible to the bags!
Sometimes you just can’t wait like Yangtze as a calf mugging Joe!

For the next tactic, one specific reindeer comes to mind, and that is Magnum a very handsome 2-year-old who loves to chew our feed sacks and create holes from which he can steal food from. He is very skilled at it and if you’re not paying attention can quickly break his way through our feed sacks. Due to the way that we herders carry the food up the hill, holey bags lead to reindeer food going down the back of our shirts, which isn’t a great feeling.

Magnum trying to make a hole in our bag mid talk! It seems a bit mean to chase him away in front of our lovely visitors when that’s their first impression of the herd but he’s destroyed so many bags! He is relentless and it can be very distracting when we’re trying to tell people how lovely all our reindeer are.
Magnum trying his hardest!

If kicking the sack hasn’t worked, some reindeer then rush over to the visitors in anticipation for the sweet snack they get while visitors hand feed. This can often happen straight away, happening as soon as we have stopped the group to chat to visitors. Once the reindeer have had a quick smell of folks’ pockets, they will head back to the feed sack again. Yearlings Nile and Elbe are guilty of this and are prone to getting right into peoples faces hoping for food.

This is Beret! She’s now learnt how hand feeding works, but it took her a while to cotton on! She spent a whole winter (gently) jumping on people and rubbing her face on our visitors to see if she then got hand feed. Photo: Yvonne Bannister
Hemp being his usual cheeky self! We don’t allow our visitors to touch the reindeer but the rule doesn’t work both ways. Hemp is probably one of the worst culprits for touching visitors. This is him rubbing his face on somebody’s bag! Thankfully this lovely visitor found the experience funny, but for our more nervous visitors this cheeky behavior can be overwhelming so it’s certainly not encouraged!

One of the final techniques I will mention is the puppy dog eye approach. This usually occurs when the group has dispersed, and visitors are off taking pictures of reindeer. Herders will stand holding the empty feed bag and a few reindeer like Druid, Bordeaux, and Olympic will stand next to us patiently waiting for extra food to come their way. Don’t tell the reindeer, but this is usually the best way to manipulate a herder into giving them extra food! When it comes to some of the tamer reindeer, like Nile, Winnie and Elbe puppy dog eyes progress into snuffling through human pockets, leaning their heads on humans and general personal space invasion until they break us herders and we give in.

The Druid approach: “any food in that white bag of yours?”
A classic Bordeaux face – hard to resist!
Elbe making sure herder Hannah can’t miss him!

Amy

Beret

Calving season May 2021 was my first month being a reindeer herder.

Later that year at Christmas time, I wanted to adopt a reindeer for my nephew Daley and for my niece Joelle in the Netherlands, but who to choose from all those hundred and fifty nice reindeer in the Cairngorms?

Mum Brie was my calving bet that year and she gave birth to a female calf, who we called Beret. Beret was a lovely light-colored reindeer calf, very sweet. As Joelle likes brie (as in the cheese) I thought it would be nice to adopt Brie’s daughter Beret for Joelle, both having a French name as well. Last week was all about Cowboy, my chosen reindeer for my nephew Daley; see that blog by clicking here.

The chosen reindeer! Beret on the left and Cowboy on the right.

Beret spent a lot of time roaming freely on the Cairngorm mountains. She likes to stay around her family, often grazing close to her mum Brie and her younger sisters Sorbet (born 2022) and Danube (born unexpectedly in 2023 on the free range).

The times she was in our hill enclosure, Beret wasn’t quite sure how to behave as a reindeer. Last year she was jumping on top of people to ask for handfeed!

She ran with one of our bulls in Autumn breeding season 2023 and in May (after a winter of free ranging, enjoying her freedom and eating lots of lichen) she gave birth for the first time! She had a big dark colored beautiful female calf and she also got a new baby sister in May this year. All have been out free ranging on the mountains again for the summer months and in September they came back to the hill enclosure so we could halter train the calves.

This Autumn 2024 Beret is behaving a bit more like an adult meeting visitors from our Hill Trips, she is a mum now after all. Her calf and little sister both look great.

Here’s some lovely photos of Beret growing up:

Brie and her calf Beret out free ranging in the hills – July 2021.
Beret back in the hill enclosure – August 2021. What a cutie!
Beret now growing in her lovely winter coat – September 2021.
Beret with her thick winter coat – December 2021.
Beret having a rest, most likely after eating lots of food – February 2022.
Beret after recently casting an antler – April 2022.
Beret beginning to grow her new set of antlers – May 2022.
Beret moulting her old winter coat but still looking very cute – June 2022.
Beret – January 2023 enjoying the snow!
Beret beginning to grow a new set of antlers – April 2023.
Beret looking very smart in her summer coat – August 2023.
A recent picture of Beret from last month in the middle of stripping her velvet – September 2024.
Beret’s lovely calf! She’s done such a good job especially as first time mum.
This is Beret and her wee sister. Beret’s mum Brie had another calf this year adding to the family! Beret and the new addition have lovely matching white noses.
Granny Brie with her new calf.

Hopefully, when Daley and Joelle are a bit older, they will be able to come up and meet Cowboy and Beret in Scotland.

What a gorgeous nose!!

Lisette

Cowboy

Calving season May 2021 was my first month being a reindeer herder.

Later that year at Christmas time, I wanted to adopt a reindeer for my nephew Daley and for my niece Joelle in the Netherlands, but who to choose from all those hundred and fifty nice reindeer in the Cairngorms?

I mostly liked the name Cowboy. Named after a cowboy hat (calving theme in 2021) but also keeping the name animal related. Cowboy’s mum was Pony and Cowboy’s sister is named Turtle (after the bean). A cowboy is not only a person who takes care of cattle, but in movies he is described as a bit of a hero or maybe even a bit of a naughty person in a nice kind of way. Reindeer Cowboy, was a gorgeous dark colored calf and he (now 3 and a half years old) is still very handsome. I decided to adopt him for my nephew Daley. Next week’s blog will be about Beret, my chosen reindeer for my niece Joelle.

Beret on the left and Cowboy on the right – the chosen reindeer for adoption!

Here some lovely photos of Cowboy growing up:

Mum Pony (with her mouth full!) and newborn Cowboy!
Cowboy aged 4 months old – September 2021
Cowboy on a frosty morning – December 2021
Cowboy – December 2021
Cowboy – February 2022
Cowboy with one antler – March 2022
Cowboy growing his new set of antlers and losing his winter coat – June 2022
Cowboy still looking very scruffy but with bigger antlers then the previous pic – July 2022
Cowboy in November 2022 in the woods adjacent to the Paddocks. He grew a very funny set of antlers in 2022, a pointy V (peace sign) sticking out in front of his face on his left antler.
Cowboy in September 2023 – what a handsome boy!

Cowboy spent time at the farm in Glenlivet last summer (2023) and grazing on the free-range over the winter months.

This summer he spent a lot of time in our hill enclosure and it’s nice to see him more often on the Hill Trips. He also loves getting hand feed!

Cowboy looking for more hand feed, September 2024

I’ve spotted him fast asleep not long ago, dreaming I’m sure.. rolling his eyes and twisting his legs. I took my chance to quietly sit next to him for a minute, thinking he would walk away as soon as he woke up and realized someone was sitting next to him. However, he opened his eyes, looked at me, changed position and went back to sleep! Dreaming about food?!

Cowboy dreaming!

Lisette

Photo Blog: April 2023

April has been a busy month with some glorious spring weather and some incredibly wild winter weather too. The first half of the month saw the Easter Holidays so we had lots of visitors around – some days we put on an additional Hill Trip in the afternoon when the morning visit sold out, and in the afternoons we ran “Seasonal Herder Talks” in our Paddocks. The second half of the month was busy with moving reindeer around getting them in the right places for the fast-approaching calving season… exciting! Pregnant females were brought into our hill enclosure and the “single ladies” (mostly the old girls retired from breeding or ones having a year off motherhood) were put back out to free range after a quick health check in the enclosure.

It’s been a fun month watching antlers casting and growing, and bellies widen on our pregnant females! Bring on calving season!

1st of April: We have reindeer back in our Paddocks! From left to right is Kiruna, Jelly, Sherlock and Busby, all here for the first half of the Easter holidays.
2nd of April: Fiona and I spent the day with Tilly where we brought of some male reindeer down from their winter free range. Here we have Dr Seuss, Spartan and Scolty ready to be taken down to the hill farm in Glenlivet.
5th of April: Andi and I spent the morning moving the reindeer into position for the morning Hill Trip. You can just see Andi in the distance letting the calves feed out of the bags first.
6th of April: Cousins Fab and Tub causing trouble!
7th of April: Lopsided Florence demonstrating an excellent example of antler growth and development.
8th of April: Sherlock not remotely bothered about our wobbly fence, but it’s easy to forgive him with a nose like that!
11th of April: Beautiful morning to see the free ranging herd. Here they are crossing a burn with the Northern Corries looking dramatic in the distance.
11th of April: Emm is here and grinning away as always! Emm is one of our fabulous volunteers and was up for for a couple of weeks to help us out during April, Here she is defending the bags from the older reindeer.
12th of April: The return of winter! A VERY wintery and wild day to be on the hill. Here’s Fly leading the herd, growing her lovely velvety antlers. Pumpkin and Lace not too far behind.
13th of April: Fly posing beautifully, showing off her fast-growing antlers. Cameron in the background waiting for me to stop taking photos!
16th of April: Fiona feeding the herd in the hill enclosure. Check out that wide belly nearest the camera!
17th of April: Glacée almost a year old and looking gorgeous! Her new antlers just beginning to grow.
19th of April: Marple and her calf from 2022, Viennetta, are now in the enclosure after a winter free ranging.
20th of April; All three leucistic calves together – from left to right we’ve got 99, Mr Whippy and Vanilla.
21st of April: Moving the free rangers through the ski area on a gorgeous sunny morning.
24th of April: Beret appreciating her winter coat more today after the recent sunny weather – there’s snow dusting Meall a’ Bhuachaille (the hill behind) and hail showers during the Hill Trip.
27th of April: The boys are back in town! Fiona and I spent the morning at the hill farm and brought back six lovely Christmas Reindeer to the enclosure here on Cairngorm. Super to have them here again!

Ruth

Photo blog: March 2023

It’s the last blog of the month and so time for another photo dump! March has been a relatively quiet month, with the Paddocks shut and fewer visitors around, but it’s still felt very busy for us herders! Generally only four members of staff work each day throughout March. The mornings are taken up by two herders heading out to find and move the free ranging herd, and the other two herders lead the Hill Trip at 11am. So, by the time we’ve all had lunch the afternoons seem to totally fly by. We also had some very snowy and wintery weather in the middle of the month, making our lives a little more interesting and keeping us on our toes! Hopefully, we’ve managed to tick off all the important jobs in time for the Easter Holidays which kick off on the 1st of April.

1st of March: Sunny has spent the majority of January and February free ranging in the hills with the big boys. He and a few other youngsters were brought off the hill on the last day of February and spent a few days in the Paddocks. So of course it was only right Sunny got an invite to dinner!!
2nd of March: Sheena and Lotti take some routine temperatures. Whilst we don’t expect any at this time of year, it’s good handling practice for the reindeer to make sure we can still catch them whilst they’re out free ranging. In this photo it’s Beret’s turn, but Holy Moley is patiently waiting for her go, anything to be allowed into the white bag!
3rd of March: Can you spot Fiona leading the herd at the front? Meanwhile I’m being “sheep dog” at the back, making sure everybody follows. Vienna and her calf Kulfi are the last two reindeer… as usual!
6th of March: Snow again! This time I’m at the front of the herd leading them in to the visit location, whilst Andi is gently encouraging them at the back. Here we have the beautiful Lace and if you look VERY closely you might be able to spot a golden eagle in the sky above the herd!
7th of March: After demolishing lots of hand feed, Pumpkin is in need of a wee rest!
7th of March: 99 and Tub, two ten-month-old calves having a play fight!
8th of March: What a day!! Popsicle and her mum Caterpillar looking gorgeous in the snow.
9th of March: Another cracking blue bird day! Here’s Merida and Beret saying hello,
12th of March: Solero chilling out after a Hill Trip whilst people enjoy milling around the herd in the background.
13th of March: A very wintery Hill Trip for me and Cameron! This is why we tell people they need full waterproofs and walking boots/wellies at this time of year.
14th of March: Moving the herd in a snow storm.
14th of March: The morning ritual of allowing the calves to feed out of the bags first, whilst we prevent older reindeer from sneaking in (yes you, Holy Moley).
15th of March: Can’t resist including this picture of Lolly (Oatcake’s calf). What a cutie.
18th of March: Leading the herd in to position for the Hill Trip, the fab trio at the front leading the way as always- Lace, Fly and Sika!
19th of March: Sorbet, Cornetto and his mum Helsinki posing in the sun!
20th of March: What a glorious morning to go retrieve and deposit the herd ready for the Hill Trip!
23rd of March: Sisters Suebi and Turtle hanging out together, strong family resemblance between these two!
24th of March: Moving the herd with Hen on a very atmospheric morning. The reindeer were particularly lazy today, they did not come to our call, so we got a great morning work out walking up to them!
27th of March: There are a few cows on the hill who are now beginning to grow their antlers for 2023. This is Ryvita who is showing off her wee velvet buds.
28th of March: Morven (currently looking a bit lopsided) and her calf Mochi waiting for the food to be put out.

Ruth

Photo blog: February 2023

It’s the last blog of the month, so here we have a selection of photos I’ve taken during February. The early part of the month was all about crossing jobs off the to-do list ready for us to re-open to the public on the 11th of February for the busy half-term holidays. The second part of the month has been all about locating the reindeer and moving the herd into a suitable position for our Hill Trips each morning, the Hill Trips themselves, and afternoon talks in the Paddocks. Plus all the usual shop and office work. As always, the holidays are over in a blur, but here are some photos of our beautiful reindeer, giving a small taster of February for you all.

6th of February -Mushy and her mum Hobnob looking alike. This pair are never too far apart.
6th of February – Feta posing beautifully!
7th of February – Andi doing a absolutely superb job of introducing our lovely reindeer to our followers on a Facebook live video.
8th of February – almost 16-year-old Fly leading the herd.
8th of February – Lotti and the white bag being followed by three old girls – Okapi, Lace and Sika.
11th of February – Open day!! These are our beautiful reindeer selected to be in the Paddocks for a short spell over February half-term. From left to right we have Pip, Camembert, Fern, and Florence.
12th of February – being “sheep dog” at the back of the herd whilst Hen leads them from the front. Moving the herd in place for the 11am Hill Trip.
12th of February – Beret posing beautifully, hard to believe she’ll be two in the spring!
13th of February – what a lovely day for a Hill Trip! Walking along at the back of our excited visitors.
13th of February – Beanie, being Beanie!
15th of February – acting sheep dog again. A windy and wet morning to retrieve the herd and deposit them in the right place for our visitors.
20th of February – Gelato, Christie’s calf, being cute.
20th of February – leading the herd to the correct location just in time! We made it to the visit location at bang on 11am, giving us 10 mins to spare before the Hill Trip arrived. I had the trusty white bag over my shoulder for bribery at the front of the herd and Lisette is “sheep dog” at the back in the red jacket.
20th of February – Paddock swap day! Pip, Camembert, Fern, and Florence went back in the hill, and were replaced with (from left to right) Kipling and her calf Tub, Feta and Hopscotch. They’ll spend the next 7 days in the Paddocks before heading back up the hill after the holidays are over.
21st of February – my favourite part of a Hill Trip – watching our visitors peacefully mingling with the herd after the hectic hand feeding session if over!
21st of February – a close up of Fly’s head. She cast her antlers earlier in the winter and has already developed velvety pads. Spring is coming!
21st of February – Suidhe just checking in with her calf Solero.
22nd of February – snow again! Rocket and his mum Gloriana.
22nd of February – Morven on the left with her two daughters Pinto and calf Mochi!

A final point – if you are wondering where all the young bulls and Christmas reindeer are in the photos, they spend the winter free ranging in a different herd that Tilly and other colleagues at the farm mostly look after. I’ve not been to visit them myself this month hence why it’s just photos of our beautiful girls and some male calves that you’ll find in this month’s blog.

Ruth

Mini-me Reindeer

Like any new reindeer herder, when I first started in May 2017 I quickly had to learn lots of reindeer names. A daunting task when we have around 150 in the herd! But it is very important as knowing their names means we can look after their welfare better by spotting when somebody is acting unusually and learning how best to handle each and every reindeer. Each reindeer is an individual with their own personality quirks, just like us humans!

Learning all their names can be very daunting to begin with!

I would frequently ask for help from Fiona, Hen and Andi in particular. “Who’s this one again?!”… most of the time they would give me very helpful clues and tips, so I slowly began to learn subtle markings or personality traits. For example, Oatcake has a white ‘O’ above her right eye, Feta has a short face, Wapiti is missing the very tops of her ears, and if you just see a reindeer bottom walking away from you it could well be Enya!

But sometimes they would say “oh they just look so like their mother/father/granny/sibling”. I used to find this very unhelpful! I don’t know their mum!! But, a few years down the line, I am finding I’m doing this myself. So, here’s a blog with a very small selection of some of our lovely reindeer who I think look very similar to a relative.

Beret and her mum Brie – both have white noses, similar antler shape and are both small in stature! August 2021.
Beret and Brie again in their winter coats – still confusing me in January 2023!
Soon to be 15 year old Sika on the left and her almost 4 year old daughter Bordeaux on the right in January 2023. Both have exactly the same facial expression when stood near a herder with a white bag.
I think mum Hobnob and daughter Mushy have very similar head shapes – December 2021.
Hobnob and Mushy also cast their right antler in sync – January 2022.
It’s something about their eyes and head shape but Peanut and mum Roule look very similar to me. February 2022.
Roule on the right, and her daughter Peanut on the left.
It’s not just the girls! Poirot and his son Sunny have very similar facial expressions and I can’t help but seeing Poirot in young Sunny sometimes! October 2022.

There’s plenty more but perhaps I’ll save that for another blog in the future.

Ruth

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