While Rudolf-the-red-nose has a busy time being visited by crowds of tourists at Santa Claus Village north of Rovaniemi, his relatives are facing a far more dramatic life these days. Last week, 140 reindeer collisions were reported.
An exceptional mild autumn can be one of the reasons why far more reindeers are hit by cars along the roads in northern Finland. The reindeer do not follow their traditional grazing land, but stays along the roads, especially if the roads are salted, reports YLE Lapland.
Particularly many crashes are reported on the roads between Sodankylä-Ivalo, and the smaller roads from Salla to Rovaniemi, Kittilä and Ranua.
In a normal year, some 4.000 reindeer are hit by cars in Lapland, slightly more than 10 per day in average. If the trend this autumn continues, the numbers of killed reindeer in the traffic will increase dramatically.
Also in Finnmark in northern Norway, the police reports that there are more reindeer in the roads than normal.
