Perilous pilgrimage for reindeer to reach pastures new in Lapland

A herd of reindeer moves silently down the mountain, their silver coats and majestic antlers blending into the Swedish tundra as their herder leads them to their winter grazing grounds in the plains below.

The annual pilgrimage, called transhumance, takes on almost sacred meaning for Sweden's indigenous Sami reindeer herders nowadays, as they face modern-day threats to their livelihood from wind turbines, global warming, logging, and mining.

"It's a painful life, but the most beautiful there is," says Margret Fjellstrom, who owns several hundred reindeer in Dikanas, a village in Sweden's mountains 800 kilometers north of the capital Stockholm.