Heavy thunderstorms clobbered the Hardangervidda region throughout the day on Friday, and inspectors believe the storm ultimately caused the demise of the large group of animals.
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More than 300 wild reindeer have died after being struck by lightning in Norway.
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.
Normally, the agency would leave the dead animals where they fell and let nature take its course, but given concerns over the spread of CWD, agency officials said they are waiting for the test results before a final decision is made.
The entangled mass of dead reindeer also evoked images of another freakish incident in 2015, when an entire herd of 60,000 critically endangered antelopes mysteriously dropped dead in a matter of four days on the steppes of Kazakhstan. The area where the animals were is far from the nearest hiking trail in the mountains. Employees with the NNI flew out to the hard-to-reach area.
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“I don’t know if there were several lightning strikes”, Kuntson said. Of the storm’s violence, he said, “We’ve never had anything like this with lightning”. As of Monday, the reindeer were still on site. The animals appeared to have fallen over where they stood. However, due to the unusually large numbers of bodies, the agency is considering other options.
