u/reindeerareawesome

I'm from northern Norway, and i am a Sami. Traditionaly, people in northern Norway would hunt waterfowl as they migrate back north for the summer. Waterfowl were a important food source after the long winter, and people in northern Norway hunted them. However after spring, and into summer, other food sources became available, so waterfowl weren't hunted as much.

Now, Norway has a waterfowl season in autumn, just like other countries. However, in northern parts of the country, there is also waterfowl season in spring. This is quite controversial amongst the people. On other hand, the people that hunt in spring want to keep their tradition alive, and hunt them in spring, not hunting them in autumn. On the other side, a lot of people mean that this is unnecesary, and that there should only be hunting season in autumn.

Me personaly, i'm against waterfowl hunts, as a lot of these hunts are excuses for poaching. Usualy, only certain species are allowed to be hunted, and each hunter is usualy only able to shoot a couple of birds. However a lot of people will shoot more birds than they are allowed too, and shoot birds that aren't allowed to be hunted.

So my question is, which option should be placed? Should the whole country have the hunting season in autumn, or should northern parts be able to keep on the spring hunt, just like they have traditionaly done?

In late winter, all the way up to late summer, reindeer can be seen tapping and rubbing on their antlers. We Sami reindeer herders say that the reindeer are crafting their antlers. Obviously we don't know if "crafting" is really the right word here, as we aren't scientists, so we don't know excactly why they do this.

However, the reason the crafting word is used is because of the reindeer behavior and the antler growth in general. When the antlers are growing, reindeer will tap and rub their antlers with their hind legs. First, the reindeer usualy rubs the antlers with their hind legs. They have a tube like organ on their hind feet, sitting between the hooves, which could secrete a liquid that helps in the antler growth. Then when they are done rubbing, they will then start tapping on their antlers with their hooves.

The reason i think the "crafting" word is used is because of their behavior in summer. Reindeer antlers grow in the summer, and reindeer can be seen tapping on them. However, you can actualy tell how the summer has been by looking at the antlers. If the majority of the herd has good antlers, then the summer has been good. However if a large part of the herd has smaller antlers, then the summer has been dry and bad. This also corresponds to their tapping. In good summers, when food is plenty, reindeer will spend more time crafting their antlers. In bad summers, reindeer spend more of their time walking around and searching for food, and thus they spend less time crafting their antlers.

Again, we Sami aren't scientists, so we have no way of actualy knowing why reindeer exhibit this behavior. The tapping could aid in antler growth, or there could be another reason they do this. I personaly think the word crafting is used because of their behavior. When they aren't grazing, they are then spending their time crafting their antlers, making them as large as possible.

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🔥 A bull reindeer "crafting" his antlers. When the antlers are growing, reindeer use their hind legs to tap and rub on the antlers, and we Sami say that they are crafting their new antlers

🔥 A herd of bull reindeer

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