Life can be pretty quiet for the reindeer raised by herders on Alaska's Seward Peninsula. Day after day, they huddle in small groups and nibble on plants that grow in the frozen tundra. Do they crave excitement? Freedom? No one really knows. But one thing is for sure: lately, thousands of reindeer have run away from home to join up with their free-roaming cousins, the caribou. They have simply gone wild!
In recent years, the region's wild-caribou population has grown so big that caribou began moving into reindeer-grazing lands in search of food. Caribou are native to Alaska, but tame reindeer were first brought there from Russia in 1890, as a source of food and income for native Alaskans. Once the animals mix together, no one can tell them apart. Reindeer and caribou belong to the same species, Rangifer tarandus.
Ten years ago, herders on the peninsula owned almost 25,000 reindeer. Today they have only about 9,000. Some have lost every single animal they owned. "In three or four years, there might not be a single reindeer left on the Seward Peninsula," says reindeer specialist Greg Finstad of the University of Alaska.
Reindeer herders are worried, because there are very few other jobs in the area. They rely on reindeer meat to feed their families, and they also sell it to stores around Alaska.
Hunter Gray, 11, has seen his family's herd shrink from more than 2,000 to fewer than 300. "I don't want to lose them," he says. "I'd rather be a reindeer herder than anything else."