In the verges of the roads in Sweden, one meets them regularly: reindeers in small family groups of two to eight animals. They are not very shy, but for safety's sake they prefer to withdraw among the trees. Reindeer (Rangifer Tarandus) are the large grazers of the taiga and tundra. They live in herds and eat mostly reindeer moss, a lichen in which algae and a fungus cooperate symbiotically. Even in winter, when the tundra is covered with snow and ice, they are able to remove this with their hoofs in order to reach their frozen meal. Their main enemy is the wolf, who grabs the weaker animals. For centuries it was used by man for its fur, meat, milk and as a draught-animal. Originally reindeer were common in all the tundra’s around the North-Pole, but in the southern parts of these regions the animal disappeared. In northern Scandinavia only a few Sami families still herd reindeer on a large-scale and in a modern manner, for instance with helicopters to round them up in the fall.