Reindeer were first brought by royal decree from Norway to Iceland in the 1700s after illness had killed about 60 percent of the islands sheep population. There was hope they might be domesticated and be kept on farms. early efforts at reindeer husbandry fizzled due to the severe winter seasons, competition with sheep farmers, and lack of interest among Icelanders in raising the animals.
September 9, 2021
The population swelled from a few dozen reindeer in the 1700s to more than 5,000 now. When winter season weather shows up, they come down into warmer valleys closer to the ocean.
August 14, 2020
As seen in the second image, the highland plateau north and northeast of Vatnajökull glacier is the only location in Iceland with constant greenery from the seaside to Vatnajökull.
Limited grazing land can be an issue in Iceland due to the islands long, cold winter seasons. Satellite observations of greenery– especially a measure called the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ( NDVI)– are among the tools that scientists and wildlife supervisors utilize to monitor the health of pastures and reindeer populations in East Iceland.
2014
Reindeer in East Iceland dont have to contend with any natural predators, parasitic flies, or mosquitoes. To keep reindeer populations in check, human hunters are allowed to eliminate about 1000– 1,300 of the animals each year.
” To prevent overgrazing, we keep the density of winter populations under one animal per square kilometer,” described Skarphéðinn Þórisson of the East Iceland Nature Centre. “Most of the overgrazing that occurs in Iceland is connected to sheep farming– not reindeer– and happens generally in locations aside from East Iceland.”
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, utilizing Landsat information from the U.S. Geological Survey and MODIS information from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Photograph by Darcy Moore.
Reindeer were very first brought by royal decree from Norway to Iceland in the 1700s after diseases had actually eliminated about 60 percent of the islands sheep population. The population swelled from a couple of dozen reindeer in the 1700s to more than 5,000 now. When winter season weather shows up, they descend into warmer valleys closer to the ocean.
As seen in the second image, the highland plateau north and northeast of Vatnajökull glacier is the only location in Iceland with constant vegetation from the seaside to Vatnajökull.
While efforts to raise domesticated reindeer on the island stopped working, herds of wild reindeer succeed in East Iceland.
While the majority of the worlds populations of reindeer and caribou have actually declined substantially in recent years, Icelands herd is doing fine. Its population proliferated in current years and is now steady.