u/reindeerareawesome

The Eurasian curlew is an interesting bird, as both the sexes come to northern Norway in spring. The couple will then mate and look after the nest together. When the chicks then hatch, the female will only stay around for a bit, usualy until the end of June, as she will leave the male with the chicks and migrate south. The males then stay until late July - early August, when he will then leave the chicks to fend for themselves. The chicks will then fatten up and learn to fly properly, and by September they also migrate south

We had the spring migration couple of weeks ago, and the reindeer marched northwards, with is following them. As the herd marched on, i noticed this one female that was walking weirdly, almost like it was limping. So i drove closer and noticed that it was walking sideways, and was starting to lag behind the herd.

Since the reindeer belonged to my dad, i drove over to him to tell him about it. We then went and lassoed the animal and euthanized it, as if it had been alive longer it would have lost all mobility in the hind legs, and would have starved to death. Because the reindeer was so thin, we couldn't salvage the meat, however we did take the front legs, the ribs and spine as food for the dogs. Do note that reindeer affected by the brainworm are safe to eat. If you notice signs of it being affected early on, you might be able to salvage the meat, if the animal is still fat. However while you can salvage the meat, we usualy leave the head behind. There are some that still take the head, but we personaly leave it for the scavengers

So my dad told me a story from when he was ice fishing a couple of years ago. We fish on the tundra lakes, where the Arctic char is the main fish. Arctic char spawn in autumn, and early winter, and you can see by the fish caught in late summer that they have plenty of eggs inside them. However, my dad was ice fishing in early May, and during this time the Arctic char don't have any eggs in them, as it's way too early for them to spawn. However, one char that he caught had eggs inside it, like it was ready to start spawning. He had never seen a fish like that, and he has fished for over 40 years.

So what could be the explanation for that? Why did this char already have it's eggs developed, and is ot common to have fish with eggs way out of the spawning season?