High female mortality resulting in herd collapse in free-ranging domesticated reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) in Sweden.

Reindeer herding in Sweden is a form of pastoralism practised by the indigenous Sámi population. The economy is mainly based on meat production. Herd size is generally regulated by harvest in order not to overuse grazing ranges and keep a productive herd.

Modelling radiocaesium transfer and long-term changes in reindeer.

A dynamic model on (137)Cs in reindeer is presented, taking into consideration short- and long-term mechanisms, including the effect of ground deposition, transfer to vegetation, reindeer diet, feed intake, absorption and depletion of radiocaesium in the reindeer body. The model was optimised to fit measured activity concentrations in Swedish reindeer after the Chernobyl fallout. For comparison, regression analyses were made and aggregated transfer factors and effective ecological half-lives were estimated.

Activity and heart rate in semi-domesticated reindeer during adaptation to emergency feeding.

Although reindeer are well adapted to limited food resources during winter, semi-domesticated reindeer are regularly fed when snow conditions are bad in order to prevent starvation. Feeding sometimes results in health problems and loss of animals. This study was made to assess if activity pattern in reindeer could be used as a tool for the reindeer herder in early detection of animals that are not adapting to feeding.

Radiocaesium in lynx in relation to ground deposition and diet.

The European lynx (Lynx lynx) might be expected to have a high intake of radiocaesium in the parts of Sweden where the main prey of the lynx, namely reindeer and roe deer, have high activity concentrations of radiocaesium because of high ground deposition. We have measured (137)Cs in muscle samples from 733 lynx during 1996-2003. The aim was to quantify the extent to which radiocaesium is transferred from fallout deposition to lynx, to test whether the transfer was higher in areas where there are reindeer present, to see if there was any decline in radiocaesium over time, and to calculate the radiation dose to lynx.

Wet belly in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) in relation to body condition, body temperature and blood constituents.

Wet belly, when the reindeer becomes wet over the lower parts of the thorax and abdomen, sometimes occurs in reindeer during feeding. In a feeding experiment, 11 out of 69 reindeer were affected by wet belly. The problem was first observed in 7 animals during a period of restricted feed intake.