Citation

Nieminen M, Leppaluoto J. Rangifer 1985; 5(2): 53-58.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1985)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

During 1974-83 a total of 23.298 reindeer died in traffic accidents in Finland. Vehicles killed 19.962 reindeer (85,7% of traffic deaths) and trains 3.336 reindeer (14,3%). During 1978-82 the majority of reindeer killed by vehicles were hinds (52,2%) and calves (24,6%). Reindeer road deaths were concentrated in the southern and central, heavily trafficked herding areas. Most reindeer were killed by vehicles in the marked herding areas of Pudasjarvi, Kuusamo, Raudanjoki and Sodankyla. The most destructive section of road was highway number 20 between Pudasjarvi and Taivalkoski where 559 reindeer died during 1978-82 on a 36 km stretch. The worst railway stretch was between Ii and Kemi where an average of 115 reindeer/10 km died during 1976-82. Most reindeer died in traffic in November, December and January during the soft snow period when the movement of reindeer is most difficult. In summer, most reindeer died in traffic in July-August. The number of reindeer deaths on the roads in May-September depended slightly on the temperature in the different months (r = 0,398). Throughout the whole reindeer herding area the amount of reindeer deaths also depended on the average 24-hour traffic (r = 0,445).

Language: sv