Father Christmas is Downsizing and Reindeer are Shrinking

In the last twenty years or so the average weight of reindeer sank by a significant percentage.  This is directly attributed to climate change due to the reduction in the available food supply.  (Science Daily:  Reindeer are shrinking: Will Santa need more to pull his sleigh?)

We will make the case and then shoot at it because we have a problem with it.

Ecologists from the James Hutton Institute, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and Norwegian University of Life Sciences have worked in the high Arctic since 1994, measuring and weighing the reindeer. Each winter they catch, mark and measure 10-month-old calves, returning each year to recapture them and track their size and weight as adults.

The survey shows that over 16 years, the adult reindeers' weight declined by 12% -- from 55kg for those born in 1994 to just over 48kg for those born in 2010.

- Science Daily

There you see it's confirmed and their observations show this really did happen.

The third factor at play is that over the past 20 years, reindeer numbers have doubled, so greater competition for food in winter could also help explain the shrinking reindeer.

All of which could spell disaster for this iconic Christmas species, Albon warns: "The implications are that there may well be more smaller reindeer in the Arctic in the coming decades but possibly at risk of catastrophic die-offs because of increased ice on the ground."

- Science Daily

That last bit takes the biscuit because it's just not complete without the doom and gloom; oh, oh, the reindeer are so screwed.  Even as a staunch advocate of environmental matters, some of this material goes over the edge for me.

Here at the Rockhouse we have a big problem with this since climate change is the only cause attributed and we see nothing of habitat encroachment or anything of that nature.  That's not science but case-building and we don't like it.

Assuming all Republicans are stupid is absurd and some will see this and think, yep, I can use that.  They can easily pitch the article as an example of bad science and don't miss for moment the fact they're watching.

We note also the increase in population in the reindeer and it's not clear if they regard that as another disaster but that's generally the Circle of Life with herd beasts.  They populate until they starve themselves out, lose all the weakest, and repeat.  It's the same reason for shooting deer as that, ostensibly, helps them by preventing some of the starvation.

We're the last ones you can call denialists regarding climate change but we want the science straight-up if it will really represent.