Kuntson said it’s not clear if just one lightning bolt hit the herd or more but he said it is common for the animals to huddle together during a storm.
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The animals were found in Hardangervidda, a national park that is home to an estimated 10,000 wild reindeer, Europe’s largest herd.
An employee with the Norwegian Environment Agency discovered the carcasses after a vicious thunderstorm pummeled the Hardangervidda plateau. As the seasons change, thousands of reindeer migrate across the plateau, moving between drier lands in the east, where they graze on lichens, and wetter lands in the west, where they breed. The Norwegian Nature Inspectorate stated in a press release that officials stumbled upon the dead animals Friday while supervising hunters in the area.
While the agency usually does not remove animals when they die in the wild, it is now considering other options because of the large numbers, Knutsen said.
A death toll this high is unheard of, meaning it could be the deadliest lightning strike in history.
It is the second time this month that a large group of animals was killed by lightning, The Telegraph reported yesterday.
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Knutson said the country has never seen a mass animal death of such scale. In 2005, 61 cows were killed by lightning in Australia and in 1971, 91 people were killed when a Peruvian plane was struck by lightning and crashed over the Amazon. On 25 August, 38 sheep were killed after they were struck by lightning in the Indian district of Kanchipuram.
