THE GREAT REINDEER MIGRATION
More numerous in Norway then the other Scandinavian countries,
the Samis, or Lapps, live mainly around the municipalities of
Kautokeino and Karasjok where the economy is built on the raising
of reindeer. Today semi-nomads, many of them still live to the
rhythm of the great transhumances. The migration north takes
place at the end of April, early May, before the spring thaw that
transforms the Finnmark plateau into an immense swamp infested
with mosquitoes. In summer, the animals graze their fill on the rich
pasturelands that border the icy Arctic Ocean. Then, with the first
signs of autumn, always early at these latitudes, the deer finally
start the return journey, driven along by the herders who have now
swapped their snowmobiles for trail bikes.
It’s the does who, since time immemorial, give the signal for the
transhumance: the clouds of mosquitoes that mark the arrival of
spring put their offspring in danger. They instinctively head North
towards the freezing Arctic Ocean where they find better food and
more favorable conditions for giving birth. Much weakened by the
long winter, the herd progresses at an average of 20 kilometers
per day. The deer have to continuously paw at the snow to find the
lichen that serves as their food. Their progress is frequently
slowed by freezing rains or snowstorms that form a thick layer
difficult to pierce. It takes them nearly a week to cover 150 to 200
kilometers, crossing the high plateaus of Finnmark and the
mountains down to the sea, where the boats that carry them to
their summer pasture await.
The Samis on their snowmobiles take turns guiding the deer,
throughout the day and night, moving along at the herds’ rhythm.
As to the sun, it no longer sets, upsetting all notion of space and
time…