More than 300 wild reindeer were recently killed by lightning at a Norwegian national park, officials say.
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A total of 323 reindeer, including 70 calves, were killed during a lightning storm on Friday (Aug. 26), according to the Norwegian Environment Agency.
The lightning storm killed 323 reindeer on the Hardangervidda plateau in central Norway. So far, five reindeer that survived the storm with severe wounds have been put down. The animals, which huddle together in danger and to protect themselves from bad weather, were killed by lightning.
A death toll this high is unheard of, meaning it could be the deadliest lightning strike in history. “I don’t know if there were several lighting strikes, but it happened in one moment”. John Jensenius, a lightning safety expert from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Verge that when animals or humans are huddled in groups, a lot of them are killed by the ground current.
It said 68 cows were killed in 2005 in a strike on a dairy farm in Australia, according to Guinness World Records.
There is however no apparent information or data available gathered on wild animals dying on mass from lightning strikes – until now. Nylend said he never heard about lightning killing animals on this kind of scale, but has heard about lightning striking and killing animals on a smaller scale.
The book goes on: “Rain from a passing thunderstorm wet the ground and sheep, causing the lightning’s electrical discharge to move completely through the herd of female sheep and lambs”.
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Reindeer tend to group together when in danger.
