Reindeer herders are suffering from a sharp rise in attacks by wolves. Upgrade to see the full report.
Kuusamo, Finland
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“These are Santa’s reindeer. But we’re really lucky because Santa only needs reindeer one day a year. So we get to fly them 364 days a year.”
It’s a well-rehearsed line. Juha Kujala has said these words many times over the years. He tells the story with a smile, even to a small audience visited by a reporting team from CNN.
But recently, Kujara’s reindeer herd has been exposed to unusual danger. Almost every day, he encounters dead reindeer. And he points the finger at an unlikely suspect: Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose war in Ukraine has had long-lasting effects.
Kujala’s family has been herding reindeer in Kuusamo in northern Finland for more than 400 years. These days, they open up their land to thousands of tourists from all over the world looking for a unique festival experience.
Finland’s northernmost Lapland is touted as the “official home of Santa Claus” and the hundreds of thousands of reindeer that roam the region are a big draw for children and adults alike.
Kujala has rebranded his farm as “Reindeer World” to capitalize on the tourism boom. He offers reindeer yoga (yes, it’s real) and postcard-perfect reindeer sleds through snow-capped forests. He sells reindeer sausages for breakfast. Reindeer skins are used as rugs. Canned reindeer antlers and reindeer meat for souvenirs.
He remains tight-lipped about how many reindeer he owns. Topics like net worth are considered too frivolous to be discussed outside of close family. But it’s a lot. And they roam freely through these fields, grazing the frost-covered undergrowth as they please.
For visitors, reindeer are the living embodiment of Christmas. For Kujala and other reindeer herders, they are about survival.
“This year is the worst ever for this region,” Kujala says, crouching next to a reindeer carcass lying in the snow.
The reindeer he was looking at was killed by a wolf just a few days ago. Its tongue had been torn out by the guilty predator, and telltale footprints were found at the crime scene. Since then, foxes and crows have eaten up the remaining meat.
Losing a female reindeer, like this one, is especially painful for Kujala. It takes about two years for reindeer to reach sexual maturity, and female reindeer typically give birth to one calf per year.
Finland’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry estimates that if a female reindeer is killed, its owner loses 1,572 euros ($1,835). In addition, the herders are now spending much of their time applying to the Finnish government for compensation for their losses, but they say it is not enough to cover their costs.
“It’s really sad. It’s really, really sad,” Kujala said. “The balance is not right. There are too many wolves, and the entire system here is threatened.…They just kill, kill, kill.
“If we don’t do anything, in a few years the whole area will be empty of reindeer. That’s sad, because reindeer herding is the oldest thing in all of Finland.”
Data from the Finnish Natural Resources Institute, a research institute under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, confirms that Finland’s wolf population has increased dramatically in recent years, from an estimated 295 in spring 2024 to about 430 this year, the highest number in decades.
The Finnish Reindeer Breeders Association says around 1,950 reindeer have been killed by wolves this year alone, an increase of nearly 70% over last year.
While wolf populations are growing across Europe, the most common explanation in Finland for record numbers of wolf attacks in northern reindeer-herding regions is hundreds of miles away, deep in Russia’s trenches in Ukraine.
Wolf hunt “No one left”
The theory is that Finnish reindeer are being killed in large numbers by Russian wolves that have crossed the more than 1,300-mile border between the two countries.
Scientific debate continues as to why these Russian border wolves are entering Finland. Some Russian media outlets have documented the impact of the logging industry on wildlife habitat in this region of the country.
A theory more popular among Finnish scientists and reindeer herders points to Ukraine as well.
According to them, the number of wolves hunted in Russia is now decreasing, thanks to mass recruitment into Russia’s war in Ukraine and the partial mobilization of able-bodied people, including hunters. And that could lead to an explosion of predators such as bears, wolverines, lynx, and wolves, which prey on reindeer in large numbers.
“After the Ukraine war, things have gotten even worse. … The wolves are coming from the Russian side,” Kujala says, pointing to the Russian border, just 40 miles from his land. “Now they are hunting humans in Ukraine. There is no one left to hunt wolves.”
This narrative of blaming Russia for the country’s woes is entirely consistent with the general anti-Russian sentiment of the Finnish population, which has been preparing for a possible future conflict with its neighbor for decades.
But this theory also has surprising weight. The Finnish Natural Resources Institute has analyzed thousands of wolf samples, often taken from faeces and urine, from across the country over the past decade, and recently noticed a sharp increase in wolves carrying DNA markers not previously observed in Finland. Scientists at the institute concluded that these animals most likely came from across the Russian border.
“I think this could be a viable theory,” says Katya Holmala, a senior scientist who has led the analysis of wolf samples for many years. “The main clue is that wolf hunting is declining on the Russian side. In Ukraine, wolf hunting was very intense even before the war, and large bounties were paid for each wolf.”
John Herrin, an intelligence expert with the Finland-based Black Bird Group who specializes in monitoring Russia’s war in Ukraine and domestic efforts to support it, agrees. He points to the large financial incentives offered to Russian men who volunteer to serve in the military in border regions like Murmansk, just east of Lapland, and the significant drop in unemployment in Russia.
“It’s a useful narrative that all bad things come from Russia,” he admits. But, he added, “What we’ve seen in particular over the last year is that even though the wolf population is increasing, the number of wolf kills itself is decreasing.”
This is a theory that cannot yet be proven, given the opacity of Russia’s record-keeping system. However, the number of men available to participate in hunting is clearly decreasing.
“There’s less and less surplus seasonal labor available to them,” Herrin said. “And this seasonal work has been commonly used in forestry, hunting, and wildlife conservation in these areas.”
Finland’s wolves are still classified as an endangered species, but last month the government advanced legislation to allow hunting of wolves. Conservationists have expressed concerns, but the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry says it recognizes the need to manage the population.
Special hunting permits are already granted on reindeer pastures, and herders like Kujala often go out with hunting dogs and rifles to scour the snow for wolf tracks.
“People who think it’s wrong to kill wolves should come here,” Kujala said. He hopes to one day pass on his reindeer business to his four sons.
“They should live our lives and understand the pain we feel when we lose our reindeer.”
Kujala is hopeful that efforts led by US President Donald Trump will bring peace to Ukraine, nearly four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“I really hope the war ends,” he says. “Hopefully, Mr. Trump, if you hear me, do everything you can. Do more than you’ve ever done. Try to stop this war. End the war.”
CNN’s Darya Tarasova contributed to this report.
