Tag: Zambezi

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Photo Blog: September 2024

September is a beautiful time of year. The weather has been completely mixed this year – we’ve had the first snow on the plateau and then HOT summery temperatures! The reindeer also look fantastic with fully grown antlers and fresh winter coats growing through.

We’ve been doing lots of free range missions to bring in the cows and their calves which is always fun. The bulls and cows have been stripping the velvet and getting a wee bit more feisty and hormonal in preparation for the upcoming rut.

The calves have also been given a name but as always we don’t post any names online until our adopters have their newsletters. Maybe by next month’s photo blog!

I’m running away on holiday for the last week of September hence the photos stopping a wee bit early this month. I’ve selected a few more on other days to make up for it though! 😉

2nd of September: Cassie heading up to feed the free rangers, Dante looking back at the camera.
3rd of September: Out on a free range mission! Came across 6 cows all looking super! It wasn’t going to be possible to move them by myself so I called for back-up from Reindeer House. Whilst I was waiting for Lisette to get to me, Juniper and I had a little rest!
9th of September: Christie and her calf both looking great! Christie is a fairly phenomenal lass – she’s now had 4 big beautiful boys in a row and has enough extra energy to grow a super set of antlers.
9th of September: Found these three gorgeous free rangers on the road so took them up to a nice spot away so as not to cause a traffic jam! From L to R we have Borlotti, Shannon and Turtle.
11th of September: The first two faces I see on the hill – what a lovely way to start the day! Morse and Dr Seuss.
11th of September: Morven looking good after a couple of years off motherhood. She’s grown her usual lovely set of antlers and will hopefully run with a bull this autumn.
11th of September: Flax and her calf.
12th of September: Isla and Cassie feeding the calves out of the bags. We do this to give the calves an extra bit of food before the greedy adults eat it all, and also to get them nice and tame the quickest way possible!
12th of September: Flax starting to strip the velvet (see her pic from the day before!).
12th of September: Our regular volunteer Emm leading Cowboy and Mivvi back into the hill enclosure.
13th of September: Sika is 16 years old, one of the oldest in the herd. She’s never had an adopter in her life until very recently!! She’s actually very shy but in recent years has cottoned on to the contents of our white feed bags. This is her licking her lips at the very thought of it!
13th of September: Holy Moley decided to grace us with her presence. She was out free roaming but popped into the enclosure with a bunch of other cows looking for a free lunch!
13th of September: It was a busy day for me. After the morning Hill Trip I went out on a reindeer retrieval mission! This is the gorgeous Fern. She’s 17 and the current oldest member of our herd.
16th of September: Torch’s lovely calf chilling out in the sun!
16th of September: Volunteer Emm and some of lovely ‘single ladies’! Mississippi, Scully (who may be Emm’s favourite in the herd but don’t tell the others that), Zambezi, and Nuii.
17th of September: Athens looking very handsome!
17th of September: Calves feeding out of the bag at the start of a Hill Trip.
19th of September: A hot day when you’re in your winter coat! Adzuki cooling himself down by standing in a bog.
22nd of September: Christie leading the herd out of the mist. To her right is Feta’s calf and Beanie.
22nd of September: Feta’s calf is a chunky lad – he’s a lovely friendly lad.

Ruth

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Photo Blog: May 2024

Who takes a holiday at the beginning of May? Yep, three full-time reindeer herders! Myself, Fiona, and Lotti got back on the 8th of May to 13 calves already romping around on the hill. What a treat to see them all and catch up properly on all the news from home.

We got straight in to the thick of it and the calves kept on coming. Hill Trips were fully booked during the bank holidays and Whitsun Week. We had some shorts and t-shirt weather and some FULL waterproofs and warm hat kinda weather. We’ve also been busy in the office running our Crowdfunder campaign which is going incredibly well (please check it out here if you haven’t seen it yet: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/a-reindeer-experience-for-all). Adoptions are still flying out the office and the June newsletter is being written. Oh, and the brand-new Reindeer Centre went up before our eyes in around 3 days in the middle of the month! An action-packed month!

Just a reminder – we won’t reveal the names of the new mothers until after we’ve let our adopters know in the June newsletter so I’ve tried to be deliberately vague. Enjoy… !

8th of May: On my first day back to work I have the pleasure of being the first person to lay eyes on this tiny lass. Ignore her blue toes – we always spray their navel with an antiseptic spray and I accidently got her foot!
10th of May: As I fed the cows and calves this little dude comes to say hello.
11th of May: The father to around half of this year’s calves!! Sherlock looking very proud of himself.
15th of May: Little and Large. Big bull Spartan walks past a mum and her new calf!
16th of May: Zambezi is no longer a calf! She’s now classed as a yearling, but is still just a beautiful!
17th of May: Calf peek-a-boo! This wee one is still not brave enough to come say hello.
17th of May: Calves come in a variety of colours from pale to dark.
17th of May: Merida and her seven year old son Dr Seuss sharing a moment together!
20th of May: Another cutie with distinctive dark eyebrows.
22nd of May: Aztec on a very ‘atmospheric’ Hill Trip! His favourite time of the day is the hand feeding session, this is him recovering.
26th of May: Four-day-old calf, he’s small but doing very well!
27th of May: This is where we found Ochil this morning! She’d managed to break-in to the lichen store and was having the time of her life.
29th of May: A gaggle of chilled out calves on our Hill Trip.
30th of May: Dr Seuss again, this time with his younger bro Ärta.

Ruth

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