A working lifeWork & careers This article is more than 13 years oldA working life: the reindeer herder
This article is more than 13 years oldIt's Christmas all year round for reindeer herder Heather Hanshaw, who helps look after Scotland's very own herdThe wind is blowing so hard that people are being lifted off their feet and water is being swept out of the loch on the mountain above us into a misty cloud. I am wearing thermals and salopettes, two pairs of socks and two fleeces under my waterproof coat, and am just about the right temperature.
By contrast, Heather Hanshaw, a herder with the Cairngorm reindeer herd near Aviemore, is wearing a fleece and jeans. No coat, no thermals, nothing. Her only concession to the weather is deer feed: Hanshaw is tiny – about 5ft 5in and 8st – and although she has only just had physiotherapy for a bad back, she is carrying a hefty bag of grain which is acting as ballast to keep her on the ground.
Hanshaw is leading a group of adults (the centre has asked that children be left at home because of the weather) to visit the reindeer. The deer are behind a fence at least 6ft high, in an area of about 1,000 acres separated into large fields, and as soon as we enter the first enclosure they trot over.
The Cairngorm reindeer were brought to Scotland in 1952 by a Swedish Sami man, Mikel Utsi, and Hanshaw has worked here on and off for 11 years, starting with a Saturday job when she was 16. She lives at the Reindeer Centre at Glenmore – a slightly ramshackle building which includes a shop stocking nothing but reindeer-related goods. Her day typically starts at 8am and depending on how the jobs are apportioned, her first task might be to drive up to a vantage point above the deer enclosure to check whether any look unwell. Alternatively, she might carry a sack of cow and sheep cereal mixed with "dark grains" – the non-alcoholic solids left over from the whisky making process – up to the deer for their first feed of the day. This is an added extra: the reindeer mostly find their own food – grass; mushrooms; birch leaves; and their absolute favourite, lichen.
In the summer, the centre does up to three guided visits a day to meet the reindeer, but at this time of year there is just one trip up the mountain at 11am. Visitors buy their tickets then wait outside in their cars: Hanshaw is leading today's visit, and after jumping in the centre's van, she beeps the horn and drives off slowly – Pied Piper-like – with about 12 cars following behind to a car park opposite the entrance to the path up the mountain. There, everyone clusters around to hear her health and safety briefing. "Please don't touch the antlers. If they are covered in velvet they are very sensitive, and even if they're not, your pushing against them may be regarded by the reindeer as a challenge," she says.
The reindeer are not great respecters of personal space and may clonk you with their antlers, but that is up to them, she adds. Otherwise they are very safe animals: they have no upper teeth at the front of their mouths, so can't bite, and they don't kick. They are also surprisingly small and light in weight, so when one stands on my foot a bit later, it doesn't hurt at all.
We are in with the Christmas reindeer – the gelded males used for pulling sledges at parades and shopping centres around the UK in the run-up to Christmas. A large reindeer with a particularly fine set of antlers makes a beeline for Hanshaw, nudging the sack she is holding. "This is Shekel," she says. "He's my favourite." It looks like the feeling is mutual, as the reindeer stands placidly waiting to be fed.
Hanshaw lets him lip up grain from her cupped hands, showing the slightly nervous crowd (the reindeer are by now circling with serious intent) that they really don't bite. In fact their noses are velvety, with fur extending into their nostrils, and their coats luscious and dense (2,000 hairs per square centimetre, according to Hanshaw).
They are perfectly adapted for cold weather, she says, with hollow hairs to increase the thermal efficiency of their coats, and they even have fur on the bottom of their feet. As a result, they are so well insulated they don't really feel the cold until the temperature drops to -30C and snow doesn't even melt if they lie on it. They are more likely to suffer from the summer heat than the winter cold.
So how do you train to be a reindeer herder? Hanshaw grew up on a farm, and says all her summers "were spent like an Enid Blyton kid".
She has clearly benefited from a lot of hands-on experience before she took up her current full-time role at the Reindeer Centre, and a geography degree enables her to talk to visitors about the surrounding landscape. But working at the Aigas Field Centre, an environmental and wildlife holiday centre just outside Inverness, also developed her ability to talk to and lead groups of children.
"Before that I never thought I'd work with kids, but I did a lot of environmental education with them and really enjoyed it," she says.
Christmas is obviously a busy time of year for reindeer and herders. The centre has sent out six teams in 7.5-tonne lorries to go to about 100 events in the build-up to 25 December (Hanshaw has acquired a licence to drive an 18-tonne lorry since working at the centre).
Each team does about two weeks' work, and stays overnight at deer-friendly farms with fields. "Each place is secure and we keep an eye on them," says Hanshaw. "We've got some reindeer that you can trust and others that are a bit cheeky, but the fields have normal sheep fences."
Each sleigh (on wheels) is pulled by two reindeer, with four following behind – two adults on the outside and two calves between.
Back at the centre I help lead a couple of reindeer along a path to practice for their forthcoming public appearances. The adults wear small, pony-sized headcollars, but the calves' heads are so tiny they have specially made halters. They have only just started being handled, and the herders are very quiet with them, crouching down to their level rather than standing over them.
Down here it is more sheltered, and you can here the strange clicking noise – a bit like when people crack their wrists or ankles to release pressure – that reindeer legs make. It is caused by tendons rubbing over bones, and Hanshaw says the noise is believed to enable reindeer to follow each other in snowstorms.
Although Christmas is busy, the autumn is even more exhausting for the five bull reindeer, who are left to breed. September and October is the rutting season, and although the bulls aren't allowed to fight each other (they are keep separate in large fenced areas), they are constantly running around checking their harem to see whether the cows are ready to breed. They drop weight during this period, and by December are so exhausted their antlers drop off to save energy during the harder winter months.
We take food into one breeding group where the bull has already had his antlers removed: he was so aggressive he was a danger to the females and handlers. He is calmer now because the season is at an end, but he is still very much top deer, pushing the females around and working his way along the line of feed piles to see which is best. This bull is such a fantastic specimen that he has been allowed to continue breeding for a couple more years than usual, says Hanshaw, but this is the last year. He's going for the big chop soon.
Readers may be crossing their legs and feeling considerable sympathy towards him but, Hanshaw says, "It's quite a nice life. There are no wolves or bears, they are fed up to three times a day. If they are gelded they don't even have to worry about all that rutting and women."
In the afternoon Hanshaw is part of a team moving some of the females to Balcorrach Farm a few miles away. First we move two male reindeer – one of whom has a sore foot – from a small enclosure which has a shelter.
In the meantime, some other handlers have been shooing the female herd in our direction. Once they are in the enclosure, we have to get them in the shelter, and finally persuade the six that are to be moved to the farm to separate from the rest of the herd. It takes a while and is just like a Benny Hill sketch; all you need is the music.
The reindeer sometimes range free over the surrounding countryside. Despite that, only one has ever been poached. "It was a real shame because he was really friendly," says Hanshaw. "He would probably have gone right up to the poacher and been shot at point blank range. It was a spiteful thing to do."
We start leading the reindeer down the mountain to an enclosed trailer. They are very considerate to lead; unlike horses, which often tread on your heels and try to get to the nearest patch of grass, they keep a respectful distance and don't pull on their lead ropes.
They scamper up and over the little bridge across the now-frothing burn without batting an eyelid, and then climb calmly into the trailer. No wonder Santa Claus thinks they're magic.
Curriculum vitae
Salary From £10,000 to £15,000, which includes accommodation.
Hours 8am to 5pm, five days a week. The centre is very flexible and has many volunteers, enabling people to take large chunks of time off to travel or do other work.
Work/life balance "Because we all work and live together, it's a way of life, not a job."
Best thing "Getting paid to walk in the Cairngorm mountains. Just look around you!"
Worst thing "It's upsetting when one of them dies, but we're all used to farming so we understand that is just how it goes. I'm not too keen on having to go out and feed the reindeer when it's wet and cold."
Overtime
Heather likes eating reindeer, and has particularly enjoyed kebabs and stew with dumplings: not the Cairngorm reindeer though – they are off-menu. Heather likes to knit in the evenings – usually scarves and things she can construct while watching TV or talking. Heather and the other herders often go mountain biking after work – "nothing strenuous, just three miles around the loch" – despite spending all day hiking up and down the mountainside.
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