Overview

Reindeer and humans arrived in Europe at roughly the same time. The reindeer took a winding route from South America, through North America and Beringia in far-eastern Russia, before crossing the Ural Mountains and beginning the journey southwestward into Europe. Humans, on the other hand, started in Africa and entered Europe from the south. One adapted to a life surrounded by snow and ice; the other was entirely dependent on the heat of the sun. A claim that such vastly different species would forge strong bonds and become mutually dependent would have seemed far-fetched. But that’s exactly what happened! For over 500,000 years, large herds of migrating reindeer sustained three different human species during the harshest climatic periods. Time and again, as cold and glaciers pushed humans into small ice-age refuges, it was reindeer that were consumed by the light of flickering fires. Today, a steadily warming planet and habitat loss threatens the survival of the reindeer. Now, it is the reindeer that needs help from humans. The time has come for a role reversal in the mountains.

Full Product Details

9781849957076

Table of Contents

Reviews

Stison: Review text. See 'Review' tab

Author Information

Reidar Andersen is a former professor of biology at NTNU, director of the Norwegian Nature Inspectorate and director of the NTNU Science Museum. He has written a number of popular science books on science topics. Olav Strand is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research at the Norwegian Wild Reindeer Center. His field of work is mountains and especially wild reindeer, and he is the author and co-author of a number of professional articles and books.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available