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HandWiki. Reindeer Distribution. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/36693 (accessed on 03 October 2026).
HandWiki. Reindeer Distribution. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/36693. Accessed October 03, 2026.
HandWiki. "Reindeer Distribution" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/36693 (accessed October 03, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, November 28). Reindeer Distribution. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/36693
HandWiki. "Reindeer Distribution." Encyclopedia. Web. 28 November, 2022.
Reindeer Distribution
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The content is sourced from: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Earth:Reindeer_distribution

The reindeer is a widespread and numerous species in the northern Holarctic, being present in both tundra and taiga (boreal forest). Originally, the reindeer was found in Scandinavia, eastern Europe, Russia , Mongolia, and northern China north of the 50th latitude. In North America, it was found in Canada , Alaska (United States ), and the northern contiguous USA from Washington to Maine. In the 19th century, it was apparently still present in southern Idaho. It also occurred naturally on Sakhalin, Greenland, and probably even in historical times in Ireland. During the late Pleistocene era, reindeer were found further south, such as at Nevada, Tennessee , and Alabama in North America and Spain in Europe. Today, wild reindeer have disappeared from many areas within this large historical range, especially from the southern parts, where it vanished almost everywhere. Populations of wild reindeer are still found in Norway , Finland , Siberia, Greenland, Alaska, and Canada . Domesticated reindeer are mostly found in northern Fennoscandia and Russia, with a herd of approximately 150–170 semi-domesticated reindeer living around the Cairngorms region in Scotland. The last remaining wild tundra reindeer in Europe are found in portions of southern Norway . A few reindeer from Norway were introduced to the South Atlantic island of South Georgia in the beginning of the 20th century. The South Georgian reindeer totaled some estimated 2600 animals in two distinct herds separated by glaciers. Although the flag and the coat of arms of the territory contain an image of a reindeer, they were eradicated from 2013 to 2017 because of the environmental damage they caused. Around 4000 reindeer have been introduced into the French sub-Antarctic archipelago of Kerguelen Islands. East Iceland has a small herd of about 2500–3000 animals. Caribou and reindeer numbers have fluctuated historically, but many herds are in decline across their range. This global decline is linked to climate change for northern, migratory caribou and reindeer herds and industrial disturbance of caribou habitat for sedentary, non-migratory herds.

climate change environmental damage sub-antarctic

References

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  3. Kolpasсhikov, L.; Makhailov, V.; Russell, D. E. (2015). "The role of harvest, predators, and socio-political environment in the dynamics of the Taimyr wild reindeer herd with some lessons for North America". Ecology and Society 20. doi:10.5751/ES-07129-200109. http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/bitstream/handle/10535/9749/ES-2014-7129.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. 
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