Possibilities for, and attitudes towards, a potential reintroduction of wild forest reindeer Rangifer tarandus fennicus Lönn. to parts of Sweden.
AbstractThe wild forest reindeer is a subspecies of the reindeer. Wild forest reindeer earlier had awide distribution range in Sweden, but it was extinct in the middle of the 19:th centurybecause of extensive hunting. In Finland, the w.f.reindeer was extinct a few decades later bysimilar reasons. Later they migrated back to the eastern parts of Finland in the middle of the20: th century. Around 1980, the w.f.reindeer was actively rentroduced to western Finland,and there the population has had a positive development. In eastern Finland though, thepopulation have declined fast during the last years. This is partly due to an increasedabundance of large predators, particularly wolf. In this study I investigated the possibilitiesfor, and attitudes towards, a reintroduction of w.f.reindeer in parts of Sweden. My resultindicates that the environmental possibilities for a reintroduction of w.f. reindeer to parts ofSweden probably are fairly good to good. The attitudes towards the w.f.reindeer is bothpositive and negative, much depending if you ask a hunter or an owner of semi-domesticreindeer. Many persons in my study can see several benefits with a reintroduction of w.f.reindeer, e.g. increase of hunting and recreational value of the nature. A problem that areintroduction of w.f.reindeer in Sweden could cause, is that the w.f.reindeer can be mixedwith the herds of semi-domestic reindeer. Experiences from Finland show that the reindeermanagementis disturbed when this happens. This is an important problem, or challenge, tosolve if a reintroduction should be possible in the future.