Reindeer: A resource around which northerners build their lives: a means of transportation, a major source of meat and skins. According to the latest estimates, there are 110 thousand domestic reindeer and 440-450 thousand wild reindeer in Taimyr. Traditionally, reindeer hunting, and has been developed in Evenkiyah, and reindeer herding has occupied a small place in the local population. In the last decade, domestic reindeer husbandry has been strengthened, but unfortunately 1,500-2,000 reindeer heads have survived.
Conquest of the North
Development of the North is directly related to the deer. First people found themselves on the Taimyr Peninsula during the Mesolithic period. They followed the retreating glacier to the North. Initially, people lived in temporary settlements, and with the onset of warmth, they followed the migratory herd of reindeer to the north, and when it got cold, they moved to the south. The Russians came to the northern lands first for the fur. Hunting and fishing was the main occupation of the people developing the northern lands. For indigenous people, reindeer has been, and remain the main source of livelihood.
Reindeer herding is associated with the small peoples of the North.
However, in Central and Yeniseian Siberia, it has not developed in the same way as in the north of Western Siberia or in the north of the European part. Environmental conditions have shaped the elements of ethnic culture associated with wild reindeer hunting, rather than reindeer herding.
In the middle of the 20th century, there were more than 2 million domestic reindeer in the USSR, and in Taimyr and Evenkia there were only 133,000, or 6% of the total population.
So insignificant differences in ecological conditions determine the way of lives of peoples. 55
History of reindeer studies
Reindeer hunting, or reindeer husbandry was carried out in the first half of the 20th century, but the scientific interest in Taimyr reindeer was in the first half of the 20th century.
This is due to such names as Vladimir Geptner, Nikolay Naumov and Lev Popov.
In the late 1950s, NIISKh employees of the Far North revealed the number and location of reindeer. Valuable contribution to the study of reindeer was made by Lev Michurin, who for the first time received new information on the ecology and morphology of the species, as well as Georgy Yakushkin and Boris Pavlov.
Academician Evgeny Syroechkovsky in his monograph "Reindeer" and other works (1974, 1975) formulated biological and economic principles of work with a large population of wild reindeer in the Taimyr region, which were implemented in the Krasnoyarsk region.
Later on, scientists from Norilsk developed the concept of commercial reindeer herding and improving the rational use of reindeer resources. 88S 1975-1990, the Taimyr-Evenkiya wild reindeer population gave more meat than domestic reindeer husbandry of the Yamalo-Nenets, Taimyr and Evenki Autonomous Districts.
Use of reindeer
The reindeer are the main hunting resource of the Taymir and, to a large extent, Evenkia
especially when the role and importance of fur fishing in the northern territories are reduced. In addition to meat, there is a demand for camouflage, i.e. the hard-haired part of the reindeer's skins and antlers are growing antlers, which contain biologically active substances used in the pharmacological industry and have a spectrum of tonic and immunostimulating effects.
According to the veterinary service, up to 60 tons of antlers are exported from Taimyr alone, which are higher regarding sales than reindeer meat.57 Only the official turnover - no more than 15% of the market — is taken into account. These are companies that pay taxes, obtain veterinary certificates, and officially export their products to third countries. The biggest export is to China and Korea. As a result, the black antler market has become a serious problem. Poachers cut off the neocosted horns of middle-aged and older males. During the crossing of the river, wild deer are caught with a hacksaw or a cuttercut, traumatizing the animals. If domestic reindeer cut antlers in accordance with sanitary standards, wild reindeer do not. A significant proportion of them die of untreated wounds. In addition, if adult males survive, they lose their reproductive capacity.
The deer population is affected by various factors that determine fertility, mortality, and growth.
This includes climate change: wintering grounds are shifting and migration routes are lengthening, affecting the timing of migration and the arrival of reindeer at traditional calving grounds. Thus, if in the 1960s reindeer crossed the Heta-Khatanga River (the main water obstacle) on the ice, Today, females give birth to their babies on the right bank of the river. During the water crossing they die in mass with unripe calfs. Raptors also affect the reindeer population. To preserve the most important resource of the North, it is necessary to regulate the number of predators influencing their population. However, when transport costs have increased, and the hunting industry has collapsed, the number of wolves has also become less regulated. There are not many bears in the Taimyr — about 600-700, but during the deer season they.