Kolguev is an island in the Barents Sea in the Russian Arctic. In 2013 and 2014, a tragedy struck the island. The island’s once thriving reindeer population collapsed. The reverberations of this tragedy rang out across species lines: the collapse left the Nenets Indigenous People without their main source of income and put the future of Kolguev’s traditional indigenous economic activities in peril. This unprecedented collapse was officially explained by climate change that resulted in periodic freeze-thaw events, causing the formation of ice crusts on vegetation, which in turn severely affected the foraging prospects of the reindeer. However, climate change was not the only culprit.¹

The shift from nomadic practices to sedentary lifestyles brought multiple changes in reindeer herding practices that would ultimately contribute to the collapse. Kolguev’s reindeer herders traditionally migrated with their herds, periodically rounding up their reindeer around the chum (i.e., nomadic tent) to prevent them from straying too far. However, In the 1980s and 1990s, nomadic practices were altered by increasing modernization. Chums were replaced by stationary scrap-material shacks built along reindeer migratory routes. Nenets’ use of snowmobiles became common as a way to accommodate their increasing distance from the herds. As a result, the contact between reindeer and herders was gradually reduced. By the mid-2000s, uncontrolled free herding had become the norm. And while the Nenets stayed in their stationary settlements, the reindeer became feral. One of the Nenets told us: “Nowadays reindeer herders […] do nothing. They only gather cloudberries and mushrooms for themselves… Before, we guarded the reindeer daily, but now we don’t. The herd is lost and has become feral.”

In many ecosystems, predators, such as wolves, regulate prey populations. Yet, on Kolguev, there are no wolves or other big predators. On Kolguev, the responsibility of culling has always fallen to humans.

Prior to the collapse, ecologists had repeatedly warned the herders to respect the carrying capacity of the island’s ecosystem, which was estimated at 4,000–6,000 reindeer. However, the Indigenous people were skeptical toward the claims of the ecologists, and in certain years the population reached a remarkable 12,000 reindeer. The Nenets people perceived the reindeer as sentient beings able to take care of themselves in the wilderness. And this logic seemed to hold true, at least when the Nenets were nomads. The collapse of the traditional relationship between reindeer and herders left both populations in a position of precarity. Traditional nomadic reindeer herders would move the herds seasonally to ensure that the reindeer could graze on grass pastures in the summer and access the lichen-rich tundra in the winter. The decline of nomadism, however, broke these patterns. On Kolguev, in the last decade, feral reindeer roamed freely and ate the lichens in summer instead of saving them for winter.

A return to traditional family nomadism and seasonal pasture rotation—according to scientists—would have been the desirable transformation needed to stop pasture degradation and loss of Indigenous lifestyles. However, the solution of returning to traditional herding practices stood in stark contrast to an increasingly modernized and globalized way of life. On the one hand, some Indigenous people were nostalgic about their traditional lifestyle, but on the other hand, they were unable to stymie the onslaught of modernization and its consequences for the health of the reindeer and the island’s ecosystems.

Moreover, the periodic thaw and freeze events—an all-too-consequential harbinger of climate change—further reduced the chances of weak and hungry reindeer to dig food from the deteriorated and overgrazed tundra pastures. In 2013-2014, the once-annual winter slaughtering campaign became the last one for Nenets on Kolguev.²

The reindeer herders chased animals towards the slaughterhouse on high-speed snowmobiles. Those reindeer that did not fall from exhaustion along the way died from hunger and weakness while in line for the slaughter. A perfect confluence of factors caused the death of the reindeer—an alchemical mix of climate change, loss of traditional nomadic lifestyles, snowmobiles, hunger, exhaustion, ice, and mismanagement. Less than a decade after, the Nenets seem to have become accustomed to living without reindeer. They now pursue alternative economic activities like fishing, crafting, and tourism.