The reindeer tell their story

49 reindeer in the Kangerlussuaq and Sisimiut area have been fitted with yellow GPS collars. Researchers will track them to understand how climate, vegetation, and human activity affect the animals. 

Researchers from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, together with international scientists, have just completed an operation in Kangerlussuaq where nearly 50 reindeer were captured with nets from a helicopter and equipped with yellow GPS collars. The reindeer will wear these yellow collars for the next 6–8 years, thereby providing new knowledge about how they use the area. These insights will benefit local hunters. 

The reindeer are captured from a helicopter 

The open tundra landscape stretches endlessly around Kangerlussuaq. Moss, lakes, and rivers are almost frozen into ice and glint in the cold sunlight. Far out on the horizon, a herd of reindeer moves across the terrain. 

Among them are 49 reindeer with yellow collars, which they will wear for about 6–8 years. 

While the 49 reindeer walk around with the yellow GPS collars, residents and researchers are gathered in the Multi House in Kangerlussuaq to listen to and present their research. People from Kangerlussuaq have shown up, and researchers who have just arrived in Kangerlussuaq have come as well. 

Mathilde Le Moulleq from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources has just landed by helicopter and hurried to the Multi House in Kangerlussuaq. She has just fitted the last reindeer with a collar. 

They catch the reindeer from a helicopter by flying close and firing nets. She tells the attending residents and researchers at Greenland Science Week in Kangerlussuaq that the collars are GPS-trackers so they can keep an eye on the animals. 

How do the animals use nature in Aasivissuit? How is their health? What is their body condition like? What about their fur coat? 

This will provide new knowledge about how the reindeer use the area around Kangerlussuaq and Sisimiut in different seasons, and how their movements are influenced by factors such as snow, ice, and temperature, as well as grazing pressure, plant composition, and traffic from people, snowmobiles, and other vehicles. 

Photo credit: Mael Perroud

Hunters get answers to questions passed down through generations 

Michael Johansen is taking part and listening to the presentations. He is from Sisimiut and lives in Kangerlussuaq with his family. Since reindeer and musk oxen are part of their everyday life and are hunted during the recreational hunting season, he hunts reindeer together with his family. That is why it is important for him to gain more knowledge about the reindeers’ movements. 

“I think the most interesting thing for me is to find out where the female reindeer with calves are, and where they stay in different seasons. To know more about their eating habits and movements — and about the way GPS is being put on them”, he says. 

“It’s very valuable to know more about this. We go hunting every year in the autumn. Now I also understand better why there are restrictions on areas where we are not allowed to hunt,” Michael Johansen explains. 

You are not allowed to hunt in the areas where the reindeer breed.

The cameras that see what no one gets to see 

There is also another way to study how the animals use nature, and how nature behaves — with a camera. 

The day after the public meeting, Park Ranger Christian Pihlblad Jerimiassen drove out to Aasivissuit together with researcher Clay Prater from Oklahoma State University. 

Clay Prater researches community-based monitoring in Qeqqata Kommunia. That is why several monitoring cameras are placed between Sisimiut and Kangerlussuaq. 

We drove along the ATV route for about 30 kilometers to check cameras located by Qorlortorsuup Kuua and Tasersuaq. The camera at Qorlortorsuup Kuua had no SD card, so we put one in. It is pointed toward the river. 

“The local community is interested in knowing where wildlife is and when it is there. We therefore use these motion-detection cameras, so when an animal passes by, the camera takes a picture and the species can be identified. At the same time, by focusing on the landscape, we can also see when ice forms on the lake and how thick it is”, says Clay Prater. 

“In that way, we can also look at changes in the hydrology and the availability of thick ice that local people can travel on”, he adds. 

Now the reindeer move through the landscape — eating, walking, and sleeping — unaware that they carry the key to new knowledge. With every signal from a collar, a new trace is drawn on the map of an old relationship: between people, animals, and the land they share.