Wild reindeer face significant welfare challenges from climate change, predation, and human disturbance. Semi-domesticated herds add further complexity.
Wild reindeer face welfare challenges across their range that are increasingly driven by human-caused environmental change. The warble fly parasite infestations common in reindeer herds cause significant pain — larvae migrate under the skin, causing tissue damage, before emerging through the hide. Climate-driven rain-on-snow events that create impenetrable ice crust over food sources lead to mass starvation events with obvious welfare implications. Semi-domesticated herds experience additional welfare challenges from intensive herding practices, including helicopter mustering, supplementary feeding during emergencies, and culling. The welfare of individual reindeer in both wild and semi-domesticated contexts is difficult to address given the vast scale of the ecosystems they inhabit.