A lightning strike in Norway has killed more than 300 reindeer.
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“Reindeer are pack animals and are often close together”.
The incident is said to have happened during a violent storm.
The Norwegian government says 323 reindeer were apparently struck by lightning last week and died. Larry is our main news editor.
So yep, with the insane amount of rain seeping into the already fast-thawing ground, those lightning rod legs, and that steadfast pack mentality, these poor reindeer had a whole lot going against them that day.
The Norwegian Nature Inspectorate wrote in a press release that officials discovered a field of carcasses on Friday while they were supervising hunters in the area.
Agency spokesman Kjartan Knutsen said it is not uncommon for reindeer or other wildlife to be killed by lightning strikes, “but we have not heard about such numbers before”.
“It’s unusual. We’ve never seen anything like this on this scale”, Knutsen said. So far, five reindeer that survived the storm with severe wounds have been put down.
Thee are some 25,000 wild tundra reindeer in Norway, located in the southern mountain ranges, according to experts. Once they arrived, they counted the number of bodies.
“We know they were killed by lightning, but this testing is for science”, he said.
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“The test results for the herd killed by lightning can give crucial answers in understanding how much the disease has spread”, he said. They also took samples from the animals. As of Monday, the reindeer were still on site.
