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[00:00.40] As he drives slowly across snow, Nils Mathis Sara drops food on the ground for hundreds of his reindeer to eat.

[00:14.21] His animals live in Finnmark, the northernmost point of Norway.

[00:20.85] But Sara wishes he did not have to feed them.

[00:23.78] "This is an emergency situation," said the 65-year-old Sara.

[00:30.15] "I am not supposed to feed them.

[00:33.07] They are supposed to feed me."

[00:36.52] Sara is Sami, an ethnic group native to the northern areas of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola peninsula of Russia.

[00:50.34] Normally, the reindeer find their own food.

[00:54.85] They dig through the snow to reach small plants, called lichen, buried below.

[01:02.83] But every winter for the past ten years, Sara has had to buy food to help the animals live through the cold season.

[01:15.84] Winter temperatures in the area can drop to as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius.

[01:24.87] Until recently, only snow fell during the winter months in Finnmark.

[01:30.45] But in recent years, the weather has been warmer, with temperatures sometimes rising above freezing.

[01:43.46] That means rain, instead of snow, falls on the ground.

[01:45.85] Then, when the temperature drops, that water turns to ice.

[01:54.09] The thick ice makes it difficult for the reindeer to reach the lichen.

[02:03.65] "It is especially hard for the younger reindeer, as their hooves are not strong enough to break through," Sara said.

[02:10.02] One morning in March, Sara and a family member put down about one and a half metric tons of food for the reindeer.

[02:19.85] The two men have been doing the same thing every other day since February.

[02:26.76] "I should really be doing this every day, but economically it does not make sense," said Sara.

[02:36.33] Feeding the animals can also bring unexpected results.

[02:42.70] Later that day, Sara sees hundreds of reindeer in his reindeer feeding area.

[02:50.40] But, the reindeer do not belong to him.

[02:54.91] Sara quickly drives over to the herder of the other reindeer.

[03:01.02] He asks the herder to move the animals out of the area.

[03:06.33] The reindeer had come to Sara’s area because of the smell of the food Sara had put on the ground.

[03:15.37] In addition, reindeer are semi-wild. Normally, herders follow the animals as they look for food under the snow.

[03:26.52] But feeding the animals makes them slowly become less wild and depend more on humans.

[03:36.62] This makes the Sami people live more like farmers than herders.

[03:42.99] Sara says this goes against the Sami’s traditional way of living.

[03:49.37] "When we feed the reindeer, they change their behavior and become more accustomed to humans," Sara said.

[03:59.73] "This is not our way."