Guide · The animal

Reindeer facts for your visit to a Levi farm

These reindeer facts turn a farm visit into a lesson in Arctic engineering: antlers on the females, hair full of air, hooves that change with the season and eyes that turn blue in winter.

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Editorial team, reindeerfarmlevi.comUpdated October 22, 2026Read time: 6 min34 sources

The tour behind this guide Levi reindeer farm visit with a short sleigh ride 4.1 (503 reviews) 1.5 hoursLocal herders explain reindeer herdingShort sleigh ride, hot juice and cookies from$130per person Check availabilityNo charge to cancel until 24 hrs before the farm visit

Five things to know

01Antlers on both: Females can grow antlers too, unique among deer.¹
02Fast growth: Antlers grow up to 2 cm a day in summer.²
03Winter food: In winter reindeer mainly eat lichens.³
04Warm coat: An overcoat of hollow, air-filled hairs over a woolly undercoat.⁴
05Owned animals: Semi-domesticated; every Finnish reindeer has an owner.⁵

A deer that lives with people

The first of the reindeer facts worth knowing is what kind of animal you are meeting. Reindeer are the only deer that have been semi-domesticated successfully on a large scale, as the encyclopaedic record puts it.⁶ In Finland, Visit Finland describes them as half tame and half wild, roaming free yet each owned by a herder.⁵

That double nature explains their behaviour at a farm. A reindeer used to people will come close for lichen, but it remains a prey animal that startles easily. The Sámi Parliament's guidance for visitors calls the reindeer a semiwild animal that gets scared easily and may rush to escape.⁷

Around Levi you are never far from one. Visit Levi counts 12,000 reindeer in Kittilä, double the human population.⁸ Reindeer and people have shared these lands for thousands of years, first through hunting, then through domestication and herding, in Visit Finland's words.⁹

The antler year

From bare head to full rack

March to April

Bulls start growing

New antlers begin on the males.¹⁰
May to June

Cows start growing

New antlers begin on the females.¹⁰
Summer

Fast growth

Up to 2 cm a day.²
Autumn

The rut

Bulls use their antlers to compete.¹¹
Late autumn

Bulls drop antlers

After the rut, in late autumn or early winter.¹²
Spring

Cows drop antlers

When they calve.¹²

Antlers on males and females

Reindeer are unique among deer in that females may have antlers, although how many females grow them varies between populations.¹ At a farm in winter you will often see antlered cows and bulls with bare heads side by side, and the timing explains why.

Antlers begin to grow on males in March or April and on females in May or June.¹⁰ After the autumn rut, in late autumn or early winter, the males drop theirs, and the females keep their antlers until they calve.¹² Metsähallitus adds that adult males, called hirvas in Finnish, carry the biggest antlers and use them when battling for females.¹¹

Growth is astonishingly quick. Visit Rovaniemi says reindeer grow a new set every year, at up to 2 cm per day in summer, and that males can grow antlers up to 130 cm long.² A growing antler is covered in soft skin, so do not touch a reindeer's antlers in summer; ask the herder first at any time of year.

Body and season

How a reindeer copes with Lapland

Part	Summer	Winter
Antlers	Growing fast	Bulls bare, cows antlered
Coat	Summer coat	New winter fur from autumn
Hooves	Thick, fleshy pads	Hard, thin pads
Eyes	Gold reflection	Blue reflection
Food	Leaves, sedges, grass	Mainly lichens

From encyclopaedic records, Visit Rovaniemi and Metsähallitus; timing varies between animals and herds.² ¹² ¹¹ ¹³ ¹⁴ ¹⁵

Look closer at the farm

Three things to notice

Antlers

The antlers

Bull or cow?

Grow: Up to 2 cm a day
Bulls drop: Late autumn
Cows keep: Until calving

Meet the reindeer

Fur

The coat

Built for the cold

Layers: Two
Overcoat: Hollow hairs
Undercoat: Dense, woolly

Meet the reindeer

Lichen

The feeding

At the corral

Winter food: Mainly lichens
Diet: Over 350 plants
How: Flat palm

Meet the reindeer

Decision helper

Which visit shows you the most?

Match the visit to what you want to see

Hear a herder explain the animals Feed reindeer lichen by hand Walk a reindeer yourself See young reindeer up close

Herders' visit

Local herders explain reindeer and herding, 1.5 hours.

Samiland paddock

Lichen bags on sale, November to April.¹⁶ ¹⁷

Lakeside family farm

Touch, feed and walk a reindeer on a half day.

Lappish sled ride

Feed young reindeer in their corral after the ride.

Their antlers grow remarkably fast during the summer, reaching growth rates of up to 2 cm per day. Male reindeer can grow antlers up to 130 cm long.

Visit Rovaniemi (the official tourism organisation of Rovaniemi)Source 2

Built for the cold

Levi's winters test any animal; January's daily lows at Kittilä Airport average -17 °C.¹⁸ The reindeer's answer starts with its coat, which has two layers: a dense woolly undercoat and a longer overcoat of hollow, air-filled hairs.⁴ If the farm has a reindeer skin to touch, you will feel how thick it is.

The feet change with the seasons too. The pads of the hooves turn from thick and fleshy in summer to hard and thin in winter, which reduces the animal's exposure to the cold ground.¹³ Watch a reindeer walk in deep snow and notice how wide its feet spread.

Even the eyes adapt. The tapetum lucidum, the reflective layer at the back of an Arctic reindeer's eye, changes colour from gold in summer to blue in winter, improving vision in long darkness.¹⁴ Around Levi that darkness is real: in the middle of December the sun stays below the horizon all day.¹⁸

Checklist

Spotting the facts at a farm

Look for

Antlered cows next to bulls without antlers in winter
Wide hooves spreading in deep snow
The blue shine of an eye in winter light

Ask the herder

How a calf is picked for the sleigh
How the earmarks are read
What the herd eats this month

Video

Reindeer adaptations to living in snow

Nothing loads until you tap play.

What reindeer eat

Reindeer are not fussy eaters. Visit Finland counts more than 350 different plants in their diet, and says that in winter they mainly eat lichens.³ Metsähallitus fills in the year: green leaves, sedges, hay and grass in summer, mushrooms in autumn as the animals prepare for winter, and lichens through the winter months.¹⁵

Lichen is a staple in winter as a food source that is readily available.¹⁹ Reindeer find it under the snow, and Siida describes herders tending the winter pastures to make sure the herd gets food there.²⁰ Researchers have even suggested that reindeer see in ultraviolet, which may help them spot UV-absorbing lichens against bright UV-reflecting snow.²¹

At a farm you may feed them lichen yourself. At Samiland in Levi, visitors can buy bags of lichen and feed the paddock reindeer by hand.¹⁶ Hold your palm flat and let the reindeer take it; the soft muzzle is surprisingly gentle, and a hungry reindeer quickly empties a bag. Feeding is a privilege of the farm visit, though: Visit Rovaniemi asks that free-roaming reindeer by the road are never fed.²²

Calves and the herd's year

Reindeer mate from late September to early November, and the gestation period is about 228 to 234 days.²³ The calves are born in May, the first ones around May Day, which Siida describes as the start of a new herding year.²⁴

A newborn calf weighs on average 6 kg.²⁵ After 45 days it can graze, but it keeps suckling until the following autumn, when it becomes independent of its mother.²⁶ In summer every calf receives its mother's earmark, the sign of who owns it.²⁷

The rut changes the bulls. Visit Finland warns that during the autumn rut male reindeer may act unpredictably, so give a bull by the roadside plenty of room.²⁸ By winter the rut is over, and the bulls have dropped their antlers.¹²

Sounds, senses and sleigh reindeer

Listen when a reindeer walks past. The knees of many reindeer are adapted to make a clicking sound as they walk.²⁹ Standing quietly at a farm, you can sometimes hear a whole group click past before you see it.

Not every reindeer pulls a sleigh. Visit Finland says training a sleigh reindeer takes 2 to 4 years, and that herders prefer large calves that are bold, calm and curious.³⁰ The reindeer pulling your sleigh near Levi is a chosen animal, picked for its temperament.

Respect those senses. Visit Finland notes that reindeer do not like loud noises, sudden movements or petting, and Finnish law forbids disturbing or frightening them.³¹ ³² The calmest visits are the ones where visitors move slowly and let the reindeer come to them.

Where to see these features near Levi

You do not need a long safari to watch reindeer closely. Visit Levi names Sammuntupa reindeer farm, the back yard of Hotel K5, the Samiland exhibition and Elves' Hideaway as the best places to spot reindeer in winter, and advises avoiding loud noises and sudden movements for the best pictures.³³ At Samiland the paddock reindeer are present from November to April.¹⁷

In summer the picture changes. The reindeer wander freely in the forests, and Visit Levi says you can spot them on the fells, along the roads in Levi Centre or cooling down in the shade by petrol stations and hotel yards.³⁴ That is the season to see antlers in full growth, covered in soft skin, and the calves following their mothers.

A booked farm visit adds the one thing a roadside sighting cannot: someone to explain what you are looking at. On this site's tour local herders and farmers answer questions about the animals and how herders know which reindeer belongs to them, and you get time for photos with the reindeer before a short sleigh ride. Bring your questions about antlers, coats and calves; the people who handle these animals every working day have the answers, and the reindeer are right in front of you while they explain.

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