A Yamal reindeer with a GPS-collar will help to correct traveling routes of reindeer herders

Scientists of the Institute of biology of Komi scientific center at the Ural branch of the RAS from Syktyvkar and the scientific center for study of the Arctic set a satellite GPS-collar on a reindeer.

An expedition to one of communities in Yar-Salye was supported by the department of science and innovations of Yamal and the interregional expedition center “Arctic”. Great help to the researchers was provided by reindeer herders. The satellite collar was set on a seven-year-old large reindeer male Tymuiko (“Ginger”). According to the scientists, soon it will be possible to observe moves of the reindeer in real time on the website of the department of information technologies and communications of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
From 2009 to 2017 the Institute of biology of Komi scientific center at the Ural branch of the RAS investigated migratory activity of individual model animals in herds of the enterprise “Izhemsky Olenevod” using pastures of the Komi Republic and Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The received data were in demand by both scientists and experts of reindeer husbandry.
3.75 – 5.65 kilograms of dry phytomass, which in different seasons of the year is provided on different areas of pastures, are necessary for formation of daily diet of a reindeer, as the head of the laboratory of computer systems, technology and modeling at the Institute of biology, a candidate of biological sciences Vladimir Yelsakov says. As he notes, at growth of degradation of pastures the size of the required area increases as animals need a larger area of grazing. Intensive moves of reindeer are the direct evidence of depletion of vegetation cover in tundra.
The scientists will compare daily activity of deer on adjoining pastures in the Arctic, will evaluate the degree of degradation of separate parts of Bolshezemelskaya and Yamalskaya areas of tundra. The received data will allow correcting projects of pastureland arrangement and determining preferences of deer herds in these or those vegetation communities, as the press-service of the governor of Yamal informs.