Mid-October
What would reindeer be without Father Christmas? Just another miracle from the north perhaps; they certainly have a firmer grip on the ice than the man with the sleigh and presents, who after all is based on a Turkish saint. Semi-domesticated reindeer roam widely across continental Scandinavia, but Svalbard hosts a unique subspecies, and it is as wild as the mountains and drifting snow.
And dumpy, somehow; wide, rounded and plump. Filled with heat-conserving fat though they may be, these are the smallest of all reindeer subspecies, hardly taller than a roe deer although much heavier. I have seen reindeer in the wild once before – woodland caribou in a Canadian Rockies herd that has now gone extinct – and can imagine them, perhaps, roaming the North Downs in the Pleistocene, leaving their disproportionately enormous hoofprints on snowy hills. Like the Arctic fox, they were residents of Britain in its colder times.
Today, they personify the polar circle and the boreal forest that flanks it. In Svalbard, they can be found anywhere not capped by glaciers.
Reindeer are the only deer species where females sport antlers. This mother, with her calf behind her, is coming into velvet – she will use her antlers throughout the winter to defend food patches against rivals.
And there is food, remarkable though it may be on islands that largely look like this.
In summer, Svalbard supports a rich community of polar wildflowers: purple saxifrage, Arctic poppies and Alpine bistort. But in winter, reindeer survive on mosses, grasses and tough plants such as polar willow. In much of their global range they browse on lichens, but not in Svalbard; lichens here are short and tough, like this map lichen, a species that can live for thousands of years.
Reindeer do not, although a few make it into their teens. On an archipelago with no wolves, starvation during spring their biggest threat. Very occasionally, a polar bear might try its luck, but the white bear is better equipped to tackle marine prey.
So for the most part, reindeer are preoccupied with quietly grazing amongst the rocks.
And blending in so well, a casual glance might fail to spot them. Two reindeer below.
A Walk with Wildlife 
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