Reindeer harassed by wolf pack rescued in Kainuu Province

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The battle between wolves and reindeer is continuing in the Halla reindeer herding area located in the municipalities of Suomussalmi and Hyrynsalmi in Kainuu Province.
      Last week a pack of eight wolves was roaming around Suomussalmi's village of Ämmänsaari for three days, and after they had killed several reindeer, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry granted permission to kill the pack in Suomussalmi.
     
However, the permits came too late, as in the meantime the wolves had already made off to Ristijärvi, south of Hyrynsalmi, and the licence to kill is not valid there.
      On Monday a group of threatened reindeer were hustled into a fenced-off enclosure in Hyrynsalmi. Almost all of the 75 reindeer herders in the Halla reindeer herding area planned to start expensive ranch feeding without delay. Normally the ranch feeding season only begins in January.
     
"A pack of eight wolves are such effective predators that the reindeer have no chance of surviving on their own", points out researcher Ilpo Kojola from the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute (RKTL).
      Particularly the calves are at risk. A total of 105 newborn calves received a tracking collar in the Halla reindeer herding area last May, and RKTL has been tracking the animals since, in order to find information on the survival of young reindeer.
      "So far 40 collars have become inoperative, and the transmitters as well as the carcasses or remains of the calves have been found. In most incidents the calves have been killed by wolves, but in the Hyrynsalmi region also lynx have been blamed for some killings", researcher Harri Nordberg reports.
      The problem has become worse over the eight years of GPS tracking of calves. In fact, recently some reindeer herders have been asking whether or not reindeer herding is an economically viable source of livelihood any more.
      There are around 250 wolves in Finland, with around two dozen of them in the reindeer herding areas. Last year, there were twenty packs of wolves that produced cubs, and the figure this year is thought to be markedly larger. The greatest attrition on reindeer has been noted specifically in the Halla herding area, where the head count has declined from 2,700 to 1,700.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Ministry gives permission to kill Suomussalmi wolf pack (20.11.2006)

Links:
  The Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute (RKTL)

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