When you are lost in tundra, your mother will always come for you

Oksana Yar told the story of the rescue of a newborn reindeer calf to a correspondent of “Sever-Press”. She and her mother went to check the state of the fence surrounding the spring camp. Something white was visible on the horizon in the thicket of the reindeer moss. Crows circled above that point. Oksana looked through the binoculars and saw a reindeer calf. Mother and daughter rushed to help. The women drove away the crows and started waiting. The weather was cool, and the baby shivered in the wind.

“You cannot take a reindeer calf in your hands, otherwise its mother may not accept the baby, having smelled a human”, explained Oksana.

The mother came for the calf an hour later. It is unknown why the baby was left alone under the gray tundra sky. But now both the reindeer herders and she-reindeer (“vazhenka”) protected it.

According to Oksana Yar, all reindeer calves make slight grunting sounds up to the age of one year. Babies live together with she-reindeer, just as long as nature requires, and then separate from them. After appearing of offspring she-reindeer with calves live separately from he-reindeer.

Now the family of Oksana Yar is located in Nadymskiy district. Appearing of small beautiful reindeer calves has started in the herd since the 3rd of May. Today there are 20 of them and new ones are born every day.

Reindeer calving is taking place in Yamal almost everywhere, except the northernmost outskirts. At the moment, about 20 thousand calves were born in agricultural enterprises of the region.

Photos and video can be found here: https://sever-press.ru/2020/05/19/kogda-poterjalsja-v-tundre-za-toboj-vsegda-pridet-mama-video/