ABSTRACT
Rangifer subspecies and their behavior Rangifer has roamed northern latitudes for more than a million years, with early fossil data from Germany dating to 440 000 years BP (Banfield 1961). Since hunters colonized the north it has been the most important game species, with recent but historically altered population estimates for wild herds in the Old World as follows: Norway, 150500 animals in 1978; the Norwegian islands of Svalbard, 1500 in 1969-77 (Reimers et al. 1980, p. 774); Finland and west Soviet Karelia, 5-6000 in 1976--8 (Pulliainen & Siivonen 1980, p. 760); Sweden, none since the 1880s (Nordqvist 1980, p. 790). The USSR had 650 000 reindeer in 1969, including tundra reindeer of Taimyr Peninsula 333 000, Yakutsk Autonomous Republic 95 000, Yamal Peninsula 4000, and Chukotsk Peninsula 3500; and woodland reindeer of Yakutsk AR 100 000 and European Russia 35 000 (Semenov-Tian-Shanskii 1975, p. 155).
