Svalbard reindeer
| Svalbard reindeer | ||||||||||||
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female Svalbardren |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus | ||||||||||||
| Vrolik , 1829 |
The Svalbard reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus , norw. Svalbardrein, including: spitsbergenrein) is a small endemic subspecies of reindeer running on the high arctic archipelago of Svalbard is home. It is an example of what is known as an island dwarfing .
Some scientists suggest it immigrated from Eurasia a long time ago. Others think it is a very close relative of the extinct East Greenland reindeer , and it could have come from the direction of Greenland .
Differences from continental relatives
The Spitzbergen reindeer differs from its relatives in anatomy and behavior. The physique is characterized by short, strong legs, a compact, stocky body with a stocky head. Overall, these animals are shorter-legged, smaller and lighter than their relatives on the continents. Only the peary caribou, which occurs on Ellesmere Island , still resembles them very much today.
Long fjords, high mountain ranges and extensive glaciers make Svalbard reindeer much more restricted in their movement. Summer and winter hikes are limited to a few valleys. There are populations that are no longer in communication with one another because of the topography dominated by islands .
Due to the high arctic distribution, the Spitzbergen reindeer does not have enough usual food available. Their food is therefore no longer primarily composed of lichens , but mosses and higher plants make up their food. In autumn it eats a very thick layer of fat in order to survive the extremely long winter of up to nine months. But if the ground is covered by a layer of ice due to rain in winter and the animals can no longer get to food even after vigorous scratching with their front hooves, the population can be reduced by up to 80% during a winter. Animals that live on the coast, sometimes help with angespültem Tang about these periods of time.
Duration
An estimated 10,000 reindeer live on Svalbard. In the rest of Norway there are around 30,000 wild reindeer (the subspecies R. t. Tarandus ). Overall, the Norwegian populations are classified as stable.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Rangifer tarandus in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2012.2. Posted by: H. Henttonen, A. Tikhonov, 2008. Retrieved December 23, 2012.