Radio Script
1998

__________________

Reindeer Diets
__________________

STORY: Although the temperature hovered around zero one recent mid-winter day in Fairbanks, Alaska, the reindeer milling about inside a large fenced enclosure on the University of Alaska's experimental farm didn't seem to mind.

As Drew Shane opens the gate and walks inside, twenty reindeer--their brown and gray coats dusted with snow--trot over, hoping for a meal.

SHANE: "They're expecting to get fed. We're getting pretty close to their feeding time and these deer coming from the wild have tamed down quite a bit. They'll eventually get as tame as captive deer but they're not quite the same as deer raised in captivity. As you can see they're getting pretty docile, and she likes her head scratched."

Several reindeer press against Shane, sniffing his pockets and leaving wet nose prints on his coat. Each is only about 10 months old. Last summer they were separated from herds that roam the Seward Peninsula in remote western Alaska. Reindeer farming began there in the early 1900s by Sheldon Jackson, a missionary who hoped to turn the region's nomadic Eskimos into reindeer herders. Today, Eskimo herders watch over some twenty thousand animals. The reindeer's low-fat meat is much in demand by restaurants and upscale markets as far away as Los Angeles and Tokyo. Reindeer antlers have a market as well. Ground into a powder, reindeer antler commands a premium price in Asia, where it's believed to increase male sexual prowess.

But as old as reindeer herding is--the Laps of Scandinavia have been doing it for centuries--very little is known about what it takes to properly nourish a reindeer. Drew Shane grew up on a cattle ranch in Wyoming. Two years ago he took over as the director of the university's reindeer research program.

SHANE: "With the animals here, right now there's very little knowledge of the nutrient requirements of reindeer, either in captivity or in a free-ranging situation. So what we're doing with the deer here in Fairbanks through some controlled feeding situations is to get an estimate of what these nutrient requirements really are, and then incorporate the information with what they learn out on the Seward Peninsula. The thing I'm most interested in is looking at the major minerals like calcium phosphorous, copper and zinc, and others that we know have an impact on productivity, reproduction, and antler development. If we can concentrate on these, maybe we can get some information that will help the producers throughout the state."

Over the next two years, Shane and four full-time workers will carefully monitor the reindeer to learn what they need to grow up healthy. They'll compare ingredients like brome hay and alfalfa, and canola and soybeans to see how each meets the nutritional needs of the reindeer. And of course they'll watch to see which feeds meet the reindeer's own taste-test.

SHANE: "That's part of it too. Will the reindeer eat it? Because if they don't eat it, it could be the best balanced diet in the world, but if they don't like it, it's not going to do them any good because they won't eat it."

Ultimately, Shane wants to use Alaska-grown ingredients like barley and fish meal to develop feeds especially for reindeer. Such feeds also will help nurture a growing reindeer farming industry that has sprung up along the state's road system in places like Nenana, Delta and Palmer. But the knowledge Shane learns about reindeer nutrition will help the herders in remote western Alaska as well.

Last year, the state's herders produced more than 400,000 pounds of reindeer steaks, sausages and other products worth just under one million dollars. Shane says solving the mysteries of reindeer nutrition will help Alaska herders produce even healthier reindeer in the future.

OUTRO: For Arctic Science Journeys, this is Robert Hannon reporting from Fairbanks, Alaska.