To the History of Reindeer and Reindeer Husbandry in Eastern Fennoscandia

Abstract

The hypotheses of the reindeer appearance in Eastern Fennoscandia are discussed. Probably, reindeer appeared in the south of the Scandinavian Peninsula and then moved along the coast of the Norwegian Sea. Further, it dispersed along the Barents Sea to the north of Finland and to the northwest of the Kola Peninsula. The occupancy of the central and northeastern parts of the Kola Peninsula, apparently, took place along the mainland of the peninsula, fi rst in the southern and then in the eastern direction. Forest reindeer entered Eastern Fennoscandia 8–9 thousand years ago: fi rst in central Karelia, much later in Finland, and, possibly, to the south of the Kola Peninsula (Siivonen, 1979; Rankama, Ukkonen, 2001). Currently, Eastern Fennoscandia is inhabited by three subspecies of reindeer: European tundra deer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus (L.)), forest reindeer (Rangifer tarandus fennicus Lönnb.), and Siberian tundra reindeer (Rangifer tarandus sibiricus (L.)) appeared here in 1887 with the arrival of reindeer herders from the Bolshezemelskaya tundra. The existence of wild reindeer in Fennoscandia is closely related to domestic reindeer husbandry. Reindeer husbandry severely limited the distribution of the wild form, and as a result, the European tundra reindeer survived in Fennoscandia in the form of geographically isolated pockets of various sizes only in Norway and on the Kola Peninsula. Genetic studies have shown that, despite the longterm coexistence of the domesticated tundra reindeer and the native wild form in the eastern part of the Kola Peninsula, the wild reindeer preserved his genetic uniqueness. To the south, in Karelia, the main tasks now should be the protection and restoration of wild forest reindeer