Part 11: Spotting reindeer
Early the next morning, we come across a caravan of several large trucks with giant wheels, a mobile fuel tank and a trailer. The trucks are set up to do seismic testing, and we discover a crew of men who have been exploring the region's oil potential for several months, sent here by a company in St. Petersburg. One of the engineers eagerly invites us into his trailer and offers us a hot drink. He is thrilled to have company and we are thrilled at the unexpected hospitality. Instant coffee never tasted so good! After a short rest for our drivers, we leave the small camp in the middle of nowhere.

A hundred miles later, the sun is so bright and the day so clear, I open the top hatch of our vezdekhod and hoist myself up onto the roof. With my down parka and hat, it's not too cold, and I soak up the sun and views of boundless, rolling hills. I stay here for hours, until suddenly; our vehicle takes a sharp turn to the right. In the distance I see a slope covered in small dark spots, and realize that Igor has spotted a reindeer herd!

As we approach the herd I see a single person swiftly crossing the top of a distant hill toward the herd. He must be wondering what on earth this pair of loud green vehicles is doing in his "neighborhood." Up close, we can see he is the keeper of these domesticated caribou, or reindeer. He is a Chukchi herder, and introduces himself simply as Nikolai.

Nikolai tells us that earlier in the day, we could have seen other herders. But they've broken camp, taking down their collapsible yarangas (reindeer-skin, yurt-like homes) in order to move the female reindeer to a new area where they will calve. Nikolai has stayed behind with the males of the herd.

Herding has been practiced in Chukotka for centuries, although during the Soviet period it became a state-run enterprise, with government intervention and forced modernization. Subsidies provided the reindeer "Brigades" with snowmobiles, helicopters, fuel and other supplies. But they brought new policies of collectivization and forced many herders to replace nomadic ways with village-based sedentary herding methods.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union the subsidies vanished, and herd numbers declined significantly. Today the herding seems to be a mix of traditional and modern. The herders move across large expanses, taking their herd from winter to spring to summer pasture grounds. They continue to live in the customary yaranga, living off the meat and products of the reindeer.
In Kamchatka, the province to the south of Chukotka, WWF is working with reindeer herders to support the conservation of traditional arts and crafts and develop strategies that will allow them to market some of these products. The project also has created a mechanism to engage the herders in protecting some of the wilderness areas important for grazing their reindeer.