1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910794791003321

Autore

Haigh J. C (Jerry C.)

Titolo

Reindeer reflections : lessons in an ancient culture / / Jerry Haigh ; foreword by Yann Martel

Pubbl/distr/stampa

[Place of publication not identified] : , : RMB Rocky Mountain Books, , [2021]

©2021

ISBN

1-77160-516-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (232 pages)

Disciplina

599.7357

Soggetti

Reindeer

Reindeer farming

Reindeer herding

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Sommario/riassunto

A fascinating look at the state and fate of caribou in North America, along with the millennia-long practice of reindeer herding in Finland, Russia, and Mongolia. Within a few days of his arrival from Kenya to the western Canadian prairie city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, wildlife veterinarian Jerry Haigh discovered that caribou and reindeer are one and the same species: wild caribou in North America, wild reindeer in Eurasia. In time, Jerry's interest and research into this dynamic species grew beyond the borders of the northern boreal forests of North American, and he became fascinated with the way they were domesticated by ancient peoples and the folklore about the animals' origins, including that of the modern Christmas story about Rudolph and his red nose. Reindeer Reflections recounts Jerry Haigh's travels and research in the arctic tundra and northern forests of North America, working among the Sami of Finland, and getting to know the nomadic Tsaatan herders in the foothills of the Sayan mountains of Mongolia. This decades-long journey to uncover how this unique species of deer has been woven into the lives of people scattered across the northern hemisphere examines the changes, mostly



collapses, in population numbers of both wild and domestic caribou, along with the effects of climate change, poaching, and disease, from Alaska to Siberia, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of the people he has met along the way.