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The Friendliest Reindeer in the World
publication date: Mar 1, 2008
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author/source: Polly Evans
 It’s not normal, I think, to have trouble taking photographs of reindeer because one of them is insistently licking your hand. But these are the Cairgorm reindeer, probably the friendliest reindeer in the world.Their ancestors were brought to Scotland in 1952 by a Swedish reindeer herder called Mikel Utsi. He came to the highlands and saw a tundra landscape very much like that he’d left, with the same slow-growing lichen that the Swedish reindeer eat. He thought reindeer ought to thrive there, and so he imported six, with the idea of starting a meat operation. Following the death of Utsi and later his wife, the burgeoning herd was bought by Alan and Tilly Smith, both former employees of Utsi who had fallen in love both with the reindeer and one another. They’ve continued to breed the animals which now number about 150.
The weather was godawful the day I visited. We drove from Reindeer Centre, just outside Aviemore, to a car park on the hill. It was blow-you-over windy – the kind of wind that would snatch a small child and whisk it away forever.
‘Don’t open two car doors at once,’ said Emily, my guide. ‘It will create a wind tunnel, and the car doors will be blown off.’
We strode and stumbled against the gale, across snow-blotched heather spotted with delicate, pale-green lichen. I fell into a patch of freezing bog; it took two people to haul me out. Then we reached the reindeer.
There were about 50 animals in this group. Some were pure white –.the Sami people think these are special reindeer, a spirit incarnation. Others were smeared with grey. But the most incredible thing about these reindeer was that they were so friendly. Though they’re free-ranging and must, for the most part, feed themselves, they’re given delicious snacks every day. And so they enthusiastically rush towards humans. They positively plead for petting. They are amazingly gentle, with soft coats and velvety muzzles – and, I can say with some authority, surprisingly soft tongues.
Emily knew each reindeer by name. There was a Glacier, a Minto, a Polo and a Ferrari. Ferrari and two of her family members were missing that day; she was 16 years old, ancient for a reindeer and Emily was concerned that she may have met her end.
My favourite comment about the Cairngorm reindeer came the next day, though, when I was out with John, a wildlife guide. A friend of his, he said, was once walking in the hills when he saw a reindeer. He was delighted to have spotted it, and attempted to creep quietly forwards to take a closer look. But just then, the reindeer turned and looked at him. ‘Damn it,’ thought the friend, ‘It’s seen me.’ But rather than running away, this reindeer galloped straight towards him. ‘I was so embarrassed,’ he later told John. ‘I just hope nobody saw me.’
Getting there: The Cairngorm Reindeer Centre is six miles outside Aviemore. There are daily trips to the mountain to see the reindeer at 11am in winter, and at 11am and 2.30pm in summer. Visits change through the year: in autumn, visitors will see the rut, and will often see the males charging each other antler to antler. In the spring they’ll see the tiny calves. There’s also a small museum with information boards and a video, plus a reindeer paddock for those for whom marching across the blustery Scottish hills is too arduous, and an elf house for children. www.reindeer-company.demon.co.uk.
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