#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The United Directorate of Taimyr Nature Reserves has declared 2020 the Year of the Reindeer. The head of the scientific department of the organization, doctor of biological sciences Leonid Kolpashchikov shared a story about the animal that has become one of the symbols of the Russian North.
According to Leonid Kolpashchikov, speaking about the characteristic animals of a particular zone, one must remember that they are migrants by nature: they constantly try to find places where there is more food and it is easier to raise offspring.
For example, reindeer migrate from the tundra to the northern taiga subzone in the fall, leaving for the territories of Evenkia, Yakutia and Yamal, where they winter, and return to the tundra in the spring. Some birds from the forest-tundra fly into the tundra and nest there. Thus, the scientist explains, the species composition of the fauna of the tundra zone in the warm season is enriched at the expense of migrants.
Over the past decades, the annual range of deer has been constantly expanding and pulsating. So, in 1950-1960s, it was relatively small. In summer, the animals grazed in the tundra zone of Taimyr, and for the winter they went to the Putorana plateau. In 1967-1968s, the first expansion of the boundaries of their habitat was recorded – part of the population migrated to the left bank of the Yenisey to the basin of the Bolshaya Kheta river. In the following years, the reindeer regularly began to visit the area, and there became much more of them, and they went further.
“The deer repeated this path after a 40-year break. Back in the 1930s, before the sharp decline in numbers, the population used winter pastures on the left bank of the Yenisey. And since the early 1970s, the migration of reindeer from the tundra of Central and Eastern Taimyr to the southeast to the Anabar plateau and the Popigai river basin has increased”, the specialist noted.
The scientist also noticed that in 1980-1990 and until 2000, the number of the wild reindeer continued to grow, which led to an even greater range of seasonal migrations and an expansion of the annual population range. Leaving the pastures of Taimyr and the Putorana plateau in autumn, the deer went even further to the south and southeast.
As This Is Taimyr wrote earlier, scientists spoke about the current state of the reindeer population in the Arctic regions. We also reported that due to climate change, deer change the timing of migration. Earlier, an expedition to monitor the population of this animal took place in Taimyr.
Text: Mikhail Tuaev, Photo: open sources
