Reindeer

On our first day in Longyearbyen (the main town in Svalbard), we were walking into town when we ran across this reindeer. Reindeer in Svalbard are a bit different than elsewhere: most noticeably, they are completely unfazed by humans, as they don’t have any natural predators (even polar bears don’t actively hunt them). That doesn’t mean it’s easy for them to survive, though, and long, brutal winters have shaped them into a quite different animal. They’re shorter and slower than other reindeer, (they don’t need to run away from predators), they don’t move in herds (the ecosystem can’t support that many of them), and have a goat-like ability to climb mountains.