Over 300 wild reindeer have been killed by lightning in southern Norway, in what officials have described as an unusually large natural disaster.
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It’s unclear whether a single lightning bolt killed off the pack of 323 reindeer or if several bolts struck them over the course of a few minutes.
A press release published by the Norwegian Environment Agency says 70 of the 323 reindeer found were calves.
“We’ve heard about animals being struck by lightning and killed, but I don’t remember hearing about lightning killing animals on this scale before”, Norwegian Nature Inpectorate spokesman Knut Nylend said. According to animal experts, so many reindeer were killed in the serious thunderstorm because reindeer tend to stay close to one another during harsh weather conditions. Five animals had to be euthanized, said officials, who told the news service that they were not sure what they would do with the bodies. “But it happened in one moment”. In 2005, a lightning strike killed 68 cows at a dairy farm outside Dorrigo in New South Wales, Australia. Norwegian authorities still have to decide if they can leave the dead animals on the plateau and let nature do her job or if they have to be removed.
This is not the first time a large herd of animals has been killed by lightning.
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It’s a peaceful scene turned horrific – hundreds of reindeer corpses now litter a mountain plateau in Norway.
