1. For more about the story use the arrow on your keyboard to explore.

  2. Henrik Seva lives alone on the Canadian tundra, 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, where he looks after the country's only free-range herd of reindeer.

  3. Richards Island, NWT, Canada
    Henrik spends seven months of the year here with the herd of roughly 3,000 reindeer, making sure they are safe from bears, wolves, wolverines, and other predators. He also butchers a few animals every week to sell in nearby communities.
    Muonionalusta, Norrbotten County, Sweden
    Henrik was born here and learned to herd reindeer from his father and grandfather, who were both nomadic Sami herders.

  4. The Sami are an indigenous people who come from northern Scandinavia and Russia. For thousands of years they followed the reindeer by foot or on skis, forging a bond with the animals that became central to Sami culture.

  5. But Sami culture has undergone a rapid modernization over the past fifty years and, although many Sami have kept their language and traditions, fewer and fewer are choosing to be herders.

  6. To keep their businesses afloat, Sami in northern Sweden have had to change how they herd reindeer. They need larger herds and, to help manage them, more machines. As a result, modern herders don't spend as much time with the animals as their ancestors. Many fear this change has damaged the sacred relationship between the Sami and their reindeer.

  7. At 49 years of age Henrik gave up herding reindeer in Sweden. He moved to the Canadian tundra, where he can be closer to the animals he loves, and to a way of life he fears is disappearing.