Reindeer Island is an island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 located in the north basin of Lake Winnipeg

Lake Winnipeg

Lake Winnipeg is a large, lake in central North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada, with its southern tip about north of the city of Winnipeg...

, in the Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 province of Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, closer to the western shore of the lake. Uninhabited by people, it was named Manitoba's first ecological reserve in May 1976, and was created under The Crown Lands Act. Reindeer Island is located approximately 130 km (80.8 mi) southeast of the community of Grand Rapids

Grand Rapids, Manitoba

Grand Rapids is a town in Manitoba, Canada located on the northwestern shore of Lake Winnipeg where the Saskatchewan River enters the lake. As the name implies, the river had a significant drop at this point . In modern days, a large hydro electric generating plant has been built...

.

Geography

The island is approximately 27 km (16.8 mi) long, and is about 7 km (4.3 mi) wide at its widest point and consists of 13,680 hectares.

Flora and fauna

It was thought that the Caspian Tern

Caspian Tern

The Caspian Tern is a species of tern, with a subcosmopolitan but scattered distribution. Despite its extensive range, it is monotypic of its genus, and has no subspecies accepted either...

 used the west coast of Reindeer Island as a breeding ground, as discovered by Eric Dunlop, a naturalist, who was collecting samples for the Carlisle Museum in Carlisle, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

during 1914 and 1915.