Reindeer Cyclone Explained: Drone Captures Moment Deers Defending Fawns

A reindeer cyclone is real and it is formed when they feel threatened. Vikings from Norway were once baffled upon seeing the swirling formation of the threatened herd of reindeer, making it impossible to target even a single one of them.

In 2019, filmmakers captured incredible aerial footage of one of these reindeer cyclones that aired in the "Wild Way of the Vikings" program of PBS, which is about the lives of Vikings and the wilderness they lived in 1,000 A.D.

But recently, a Twitter user named Science girl with the username of @gunsnrosesgirl3 posted a video of the hypnotic reindeer cyclone in Russia's Murmansk region with a caption: "a swirling mass of threatened reindeer stampeding in a circle making it impossible to target an individual."

Reindeers Dance in Hypnotic Circle

The Moscow Times also posted the same video on their Twitter account on March 30 with a caption: "shows how reindeers' dance' in a hypnotic circle in order to protect the does and their fawns in the center from predators. No matter what species you are, a mothers' love is the strongest."

The mesmerizing video of the reindeer cyclone in Russia was recorded by photographer Lev Fedoseyev using a drone, according to FTW.

According to a statement from PBS, the reindeer cyclone formation is an effective defense mechanism against any predator, like a wolf, bear, or even humans. Anyone hunting them would have a hard time targeting and overpowering a single reindeer, making the cyclone-like formation a formidable defense strategy.

Researchers who wrote a study in 2002 about this behavior said that reindeers practice this formation who are kept in corrals and occur with at least 20 to 25 animals. The study, entitled "Behavioral lateralization in reindeer" said that reindeers would move invariably in a counterclockwise direction.

Opportunistic Viking Hunters

Doctoral candidate Albína Hulda Pálsdóttir in the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis at the University of Oslo in Sweden told Live Science, that Vikings are opportunistic hunters who hunt on birds, fish, seals, walruses, and even whales.

She added that Vikings had the habit of making use of everything they could during their time. Experts have known that Vikings used bows and arrows, and ropes and nets for fishing and birding.

But there are only a few details about their hunting techniques that archaeologists know. For instance, Vikings crafted tools mainly from organic materials, such as hide, rope, and wood that do not preserve well.

In the recent years that the permafrost has melted, these ancient relics have emerged, particularly in Norway where regions of long-frozen snow are rapidly disappearing. This gave the scientists access to Viking relics that were preserved in ice for so over a thousand years, Pálsdóttir said.

She added that these relics added to the information about the material Vikings used in hunting animals, like reindeers.

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