Dec 9, 2005, 12:27 GMT
Nuuk/Copenhagen - A massive surge in Greenland's reindeer population poses a threat to the island's habitat and the reindeer's chances of survival, reports said Friday.
Greenland - often presented as the official home of Santa Claus - is the world's largest island.
A part of western Greenland about the size of Denmark is estimated to have some 125,000 reindeer - a 25 per cent increase since 2000, authorities in the self-governing Danish territory said.
'At some stage, the grazing will be so limited that a large number of animals will rapidly starve to death,' Mads Brinck Lillelund of Greenland's environmental protection agency told public broadcaster DR.
Measures to control numbers by allowing reindeer hunts have proved insufficient. Researchers believe 100,000 animals should be hunted annually to keep the reindeer population in check. Currently about 30,000 reindeer are killed in hunts on the island.
Greenland, which is 50 times the size of Denmark but only 56,000 inhabitants, has had home rule since 1979.
Denmark has remained responsible for defence and foreign affairs.
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