sleigh

New research presented at the British Ecological Society, Liverpool shows that reindeer are shrinking. These findings come from a survey conducted between 1994-2010 in Svalbard, a Norwegian island, which found the animals have lost about 12% of their body mass over this timeframe. The research team thinks the shrinking reindeer phenomenon might be caused by global warming as females have increased access to grasslands and give birth to more calves annually than in the past. This translates to less nutrients available to support each gestation causing lower birth weights and more competition…

Image of Aoluguya reindeer from www.chinatouradvisors.com Scientists have now determined the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Aoluguya reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). I wonder if the sequence will hold any more clues as to why Rudolph's nose is so red and bright. Although according to this prior blog entry perhaps it was the other 8 reindeer who were different... Source: Ju Y, Liu H, Rong M, Yang Y, Wei H, Shao Y, Chen X, Xing X. Complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Aoluguya reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). Mitochondrial DNA. 3:1-2, 2014. [Epub ahead of print]