Differences and similarities between Highland cattle and reindeer: part 2

For anyone who didn’t read part 1 then check it out here!

Halter training:

October is halter training time for our reindeer, we will (temporarily) take the calves away from their mums and start doing some training. This is very helpful in case we need to catch them for any treatment in the future or walk them to a new area. Some of the well-trained, castrated reindeer end up doing some Christmas events in the festive season and sometimes the cattle will go to an event or show, needing to be halter trained.

Reindeer or cattle, the first time on a halter can be a bit difficult as it’s an unfamilar sensation having something on your face. We will try to give them lots of nice food and the best experience as possible. The second day will be much more relaxed for both handler and animal already, but is does take some work and patience to get them to walk nicely on a halter without them being stubborn or without any pulling.

Halter training with cattle can be a bit more dangerous as they are heavy in weight and pretty strong. Not only that, where reindeer physically can’t kick backwards with their rear legs, cattle can!  At least, luckily both reindeer and cattle will not bite you, as they both don’t have upper teeth, but instead have a strong dental pad (gum without teeth).

One of the reasons why we halter train all our reindeer is so we can catch them out whilst free ranging incase we need to move them. This bunch of free rangers were easy to catch with that big bag of bribery next to Lisette!
Halter reaining in Glen Nevis.

Relaxing:

Reindeer or cattle, they all do love a bit of relaxing time!!

Ted having a nap!
Mairi enjoying the sun on her side.
Kelpie enjoying the sun.
Akubra enjoying some autumnal sunshine!
Cowboy fast asleep.
Dr Seuss relaxing, probably after eating lots of hand feed!

Green things(!):

 Reindeer in the Cairngorms and Highland cattle in Glen Nevis, they all love the color green; bags, scoops, bins, or even green vans!

Reindeer calves eating out of the green bag – Tub, Magnum, Viennetta, and Mr Whippy!
Beret seeing if we’ve got any extra food for her in our green bins in the hill enclosure.
Enjoying a quick snack from a green scoop!
Checking out Lisette’s green van!

Selfies:

Reindeer and cattle don’t mind a selfie or close-up photo either!

Max with his big wet nose.
Beret and her lovely furry, warm nose!

Cow and calf:

Cow and calf reindeer, Scully and new-born Yukon.
Cow and calf Highlanders!

Popularity:

Another thing they both have in common, they’re native to Scotland and tourists love seeing them!

Happy people on a Hill Trip visiting the reindeer.
People enjoying seeing the Highland cow herd in Glen Nevis.

Reindeer used to be native to Scotland but went extinct. Nobody knows exactly when, but we think the last reindeer (still roaming in Caithness and Cairngorm area, the coldest places in the UK) went extinct around the 1000 years ago due to different reasons, such as range restriction and people overhunting them. In other areas of Britain, reindeer disappeared much earlier, due to natural climate change after the last ice-age, the habitat changed and there was less suitable food for this Artic animal.

We think Highland cattle have descended from the Egyptian Long horn cattle. These cattle were well established and domesticated in the Nile village around 6000 years ago. Neolithic farmers brought these cattle into Britain. The group of cattle settled in the Highlands had to adapt to the colder and windy weather, growing lots more hair!

Another story is, that the Celtic immigrant people brought their Short Horns, another old breed (all cattle likely come from the Aurochs, originating either in North India or Central Asia and spreading into North Africa and into Europe) to the Scottish Island, where again, they had to adapt to the harsh weather. These cattle, black in color, were first called Kyloe (from the way they swam or were ferried across the kyles) and are now known as Highland cattle, mixing with the cattle on the mainland and domesticated into different colors, mostly red haired due to Queen Victoria’s preference. The Highland cattle herd book was established in 1885.

After the reindeer got re-introduced in Scotland to the Cairngorms (still the coldest place in the UK) in 1952, people fell in love with them and the Reindeer Centre has been taking people to see the reindeer on Hill Trips or in our Paddocks.

On the Glen Nevis Estate I’ve started taking people up to see the cattle since last year, March-October, either on a guided walk in the Glen or on the Hairy Cow Experience (find out more here: https://www.glen-nevis.co.uk/activities).

Lisette

Differences and similarities between Highland cattle and reindeer: part 1

I have been a reindeer herder for the last three and a half years, working two days per week. For the rest of the time I live in Fort William where amongst many other things I look after a herd of Highland cattle. I thought it would make a fun blog to talk about some similarities and differences I find working with these two very hairy animals.

Names:

Of course, Highland cattle and reindeer do not look like each other at all, but we do call the female cattle and reindeer cows, and we call the male cattle and reindeer bulls, and their young calves.

Highland calf in Glen Nevis.
Some lovely calves from the Cairngorm reindeer herd.
Highland bull Ted.
Highland bull Bealach.
Roman, a very impressive reindeer bull, in September 2021.
Reindeer bull Sherlock.

Horns or Antlers:

Highland cattle have got horns on their head, made from keratin, with the life core in the middle. They will grow slowly and keep growing their whole lifetime.

Reindeer, like most other deer species, have got antlers on their head. They grow quickly, fall off, and grow back every single year. These are not made from keratin, but bone. While they grow, a special tissue called velvet is on the outside, beneath that is the blood supply feeding the growing bone.

Normally Highland cattle will not lose their horns; however, we do have one exception in Glen Nevis, our famous girl Mairi. She broke her horn 4 years ago, I’ve no idea what happened, it will remain a mystery forever.

Mairi with her broken horn.

And normally reindeer will grow a nice set of antlers, but after a little accident and surgery when she was only a little calf, reindeer Holy Moley will only grow one antler every year too!

The lovely Holy Moley with her one antler!

Coats:

Both animals grow a thick winter coat, and they will lose this coat for the summer months.

Instead of melting, the snow will stay on their body as they don’t give away any of their body heat, keeping the cold out and warmth in.

A snowy Highlander!
Juniper and Sundae in the middle of a snowy herd.
Sheila in her thick winter coat.
Sheila looking smart in her summer coat.
Beret in her beautiful thick and light-colored winter coat.
Beret in their much thinner and darker looking summer coat.
In June, all reindeer look very scruffy, hairs flying everywhere. This is Cowboy losing his winter coat in June 2022.

Highland cattle sometimes need (and like) a hand getting rid of their winter coat, by giving them a brush in springtime. However, they also don’t mind a nice brush other times of the year.

Giving the cows a helping hand during the moult.
Ted enjoying a summer brush.

Where reindeer don’t like being touched, most of the cattle I work with absolutely love it.  Reindeer are not tactile animals; they don’t groom each other. If a reindeer touches another reindeer, they do this to tell the other reindeer that he or she is in their private space and need to move out of their way. If people touch them, they likely just walk away, thinking we are telling them off.

There are of course a few reindeer who don’t mind getting touched, mostly because they’re hoping for some extra food.

A quick reindeer interaction with Beret, nothing to do with the food bag under Lisette’s arm! 😉

Cattle love licking each other. Like every person and animal, they all have their own character, but most of the Glen Nevis herd will do anything for a brush. We will try not to do this over winter, as we don’t want to pull out their hair which protects them in the colder weather.

Iona and Rain enjoying each others touch, early summer 2024.

Stay tuned for part 2 next week…!

Lisette

Adopter’s 65th Anniversary Weekend: Part 2

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Adopters and reindeer relaxing in the garden (Photo by Andi Probert)

Here’s a wee round up of day two of our 65th Anniversary weekend…

After a good night’s kip we were all up bright and early (well, early at least, not sure about the bright!) for another day of fun, this time over at our Glenlivet hill farm. We have a second base there, about an hour’s drive from the Reindeer Centre, where some of our male reindeer spend the summer months, and which also gives us access to the Cromdale mountains for brilliant winter grazing.

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Hamish looking at the view (Photo by Barbara Butters)

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It’s a tough life! (Photo by Andrew Smith)

Hen and myself headed straight over to help Tilly set up at the farm, collecting some fallen branches covered with lichen for visitors to feed to our reindeer on the way. We arrived to find everything already looking quite organised, but the first big job was to move some of the reindeer from their normal daytime area – a sloping field with access to a large airy barn – down to the garden ready to meet their adopters. Hen was primed with a list of which reindeer had someone coming to see them, and we both made our way through the reindeer, who were munching away at their breakfast, popping head collars on the first 10, who we distributed between the various helpers we had, before we led them down the yard and let them loose in the fenced garden. The reindeer thought this was thoroughly exciting, and Blue in particular went leaping and bucking off down the hill! We went back for a second run, and a partial third run, before leaving the shier and older reindeer to relax in the peaceful barn for the day.

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Reindeer socialising in the garden (Photo by Yvonne Bannister)

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Aye Coffee providing caffeine and sugar to keep everyone warm! (Photo by Andi Probert)

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Happy iron age pigs delighted to have fresh ground to root around in

By now, much to my delight, Aye Coffee had arrived to provide me with my vital caffeine intake for the day and were setting up their van, Derek was prepping the meat for the BBQ (low food miles indeed!) and Alan had moved a group of the Iron Age pigs down to a pen near the garden for the day, which they were cheerfully rooting up. Alan then quickly made himself scarce, not to be seen for the rest of the day (probably busy running up a hill somewhere!). The first adopters were arriving and the drizzle was just starting to dry up. There was a roaring fire going in the BBQ hut, which was the perfect antidote to any chilly fingers.

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Lovely toasty BBQ hut(/sauna!)

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Derek (background) serving up burgers and sausages from the farm.

As adopters arrived, we tracked down reindeer for them and made introductions. October is peak rutting season, so all of our young bulls were in a separate pen, and we mostly headed in ourselves and brought adopted reindeer down to meet their adopters at the gate, to save anyone accidentally getting caught between teenage bulls who were full of hormones!

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Young bulls tussling.

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Feeding lichen lollipops to greedy reindeer! (Photo by Andi Probert)

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“I’ll have that!” says Scrabble

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Oryx meeting his adopters

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Spider delighted to meet adopters! (Photo by Linda Hoejland)

In the garden, everyone was handing out lichen lollipops, and the reindeer were very relaxed – by the afternoon most of them were lying down fast asleep between groups of visitors. Tilly had arranged tractor and trailer tours, but had underestimated their popularity, so the first tour was one tractor and trailer, but by the last tour there was a progression of tractor and trailer, landrover, and quad bike and trailer! Despite our slight lack of organisation with them, everyone seemed to have a blast and most people who wanted to go on it did (possibly with the exception of myself!).

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One of the tractor and trailer tours setting off (Photo by Carola de Raaf)

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Inquisitive red deer hinds and calves (Photo by Colin Brazier)

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Beautiful setting for our red deer herd (Photo by Andrew Smith)

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There was even cake!

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Busy making badges to show who their adopted reindeer is.

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Highland cattle wondering what on earth is going on! (Photo by Yvonne Bannister)

By 4pm, the BBQ was finished, the coffee van packing away, and the last adopters were heading home. There wasn’t too much to do except pack away the information boards, run the reindeer from the garden back up to the hill, lead the herd up onto the open hill for the night, and feed the bulls. And then, most importantly, head out for a celebratory meal ourselves! (Thanks Tilly!)

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Puddock bonding with herders Fiona and Morna (Fiona just may have been plaiting his beard…)

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Reindeer licking lichen off the walls! (Photo by Joanne Jewers)

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It’s all too much for Moose! He was mid-dream at this point!

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One of this year’s hand-reared red deer calves (Photo by Kirstin Kerr)

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Big pig! (Photo by Yvonne Bannister)

We certainly had a lovely weekend, and great to meet so many people (old friends and new). We hope you all enjoyed yourselves too. We’ll do it all again for our 70th (once we’ve forgotten how much organisation it all took…)

Andi

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