Dead planet, living planet

CASE STUDY #32

Introduction of reindeer to Western Greenland – transplant of parasites to wild caribou

The reindeer from Europe brought with them the skin warble fly ( Oedemagena furandi ) and nasal bot fly ( Cephenemyia trompe ), which were not occurring in eastern Greenland at that time, and subsequently spread to the remaining wild caribou, which in turn led to deteriorated condition of the caribou and increased mortality rates (Klein, 1980). A similar case was observed with the disease Brucelloisis which apparently increased in wild caribou in Alaska’s Seward peninsula after the introduction of reindeer (Klein, 1980).

In Western Greenland, where many West-Greenland caribou ( Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus ) populations had been depleted through excessive hunting, European wild reindeer ( Rangifer taran- dus tarandus ) were introduced for the first time in 1952 to support this traditional food for local indigenous inuit hunters, for both herding and hunting (Cuyler, 1998). Reindeer and caribou are the same species ( Rangifer tarandus ), but different sub-species. How- ever, the transplantation attempt also had one unintended result:

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