My heart skipped a beat as I read the headline, “Reindeer becoming smaller due to global warming.” Oh, no, poor Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Comet, Vixen, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen, not to mention the most famous reindeer of all – Rudolph.
If they are getting so small, how will they ever be able to pull the sleigh for the jolly old man, and get all those presents delivered?
It seems that a 16-year scientific study on a Norwegian Island in the Arctic Circle had concluded that the reindeer at that location had declined in weight by an alarming 12 percent over that time period.
The researchers had determined that the average temperature on the island had increased 1.5 degrees Celsius over the past 100 years. Because the island is typically covered with snow for eight months of each year, the warmer temperatures have resulted in more rain, compared to the amount of snow, during those eight months, causing the normally loose snow to be harder and icier. This harder snow prevents the deer from pawing through the winter cover, as easily, to reach the nutrients in the grass below. Are you following all this?
When the study started, in 1994, the average weight of a reindeer was 121 pounds and when the study ended in 2010, the average weight had fallen to 106 pounds. By my estimation, Santa is going to need at least one more animal to pick up the slack in order to get deliveries made on time and on budget. I suggest they name him (or her, since female reindeer have antlers, too) Skinny.
In the very last paragraph of the article, the scientists did concede that the warmer temperatures had led to more vegetative growth in their summer months which, in turn, had led to a dramatic increase in the total number of reindeer on the island and that also might contribute to the lower average weight of the deer population. Hmmm.
Every cattleman worth his salt, would know that if their pasture supports 100 cows and their calves during a normal year and they decide to put 200 cows and their calves on the same land one year, the calves are going to be quite a bit smaller, and their mothers are going to lose a little weight as well. If only these scientists from the British Ecological Society had bothered to ask a rancher, we could have saved them millions of dollars of research money, not to mention 16 years of living out in the frigid tundra.
So, rest easy, kids. The reindeer population is safe and thriving, albeit on a trimmer, more physically fit scale. Santa will continue to bring you presents, and don’t forget to leave an extra flake of hay on the roof …for Skinny.
