Caribou (wild) and reindeer (semi-domesticated) face welfare challenges from climate change, industrial development, and herding practices that affect millions of animals across arctic and subarctic regions.
Caribou and reindeer welfare is shaped profoundly by climate change and industrial development. Warble fly larvae that overwinter under caribou skin and emerge in spring cause intense pain and tissue damage — heavily parasitised animals lose significant body condition. Nose bot flies cause caribou to run, shake their heads, and crowd together in ways that reduce feeding time significantly during critical summer fattening periods. Icing events that lock forage beneath impenetrable crusts cause starvation that begins with weakness, progresses to collapse, and ends in death — a welfare crisis for individual animals and catastrophic population-level events. Reindeer herding practices that include corralling, sorting, and transport impose acute stress on animals habituated to extensive movement. Climate-driven welfare challenges are intensifying as the Arctic warms faster than any other region.