Reinde­er popu­la­ti­on has dou­bled sin­ce 1994

Local reinde­er popu­la­ti­ons in seve­ral important val­leys near Lon­gye­ar­by­en such as Sem­mel­da­len, Coles­da­len and Advent­da­len have dou­bled sin­ce 1994, and this trend is belie­ved to app­ly also to other parts of the Spits­ber­gen archi­pe­la­go. The reason is thought to be a 2 degrees increase of sum­mer tem­pe­ra­tures which have led to stron­ger growth of vege­ta­ti­on. On the other hand, insta­ble wea­ther pat­terns have led to a hig­her fre­quen­cy of bad years with star­va­ti­on and a loss of parts of the popu­la­ti­on. The avera­ge weight of the indi­vi­du­al ani­mals has decreased slight­ly (about 1 kg). 2012 is likely to beco­me the fourth bad year for reinde­er sin­ce the begin­ning of the obser­va­tions, which include popu­la­ti­on sur­veys and the exami­na­ti­on of reinde­er jaws which are deli­ver­ed by hun­ters.

Source: Nor­we­gi­an Polar Insti­tu­te

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