Kjartan Knutsen, from Norway’s nature surveillance agency, said that to see this many reindeer struck down by lightning is unprecedented. During a heavy thunderstorm, they may have gathered even closer together out of fear, ” he told the news site.
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Reindeer are often close together.
Norway’s Environment Directorate reported on August 28 that 323 caribou were killed by a lightning strike on the mountain plateau of Hardangervidda.
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.
Thousands of reindeer migrate across the barren Hardanangervidda plateau as the seasons change. Of the storm’s violence, he said, “We’ve never had anything like this with lightning”. The lightning proved to be deadly to an entire herd of reindeer. Officials in Oslo called the incident a serious natural disaster.
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The Hardangervidda area is home to 10,000-11,000 reindeer, which is the largest reindeer population in Norway. Five of the injured animals also had to be put down. In 2005, a lightning strike killed 68 cows at a dairy farm outside Dorrigo in New South Wales, Australia. This is the first time that such a death has been recorded on such a large scale. The reserve chose to “let nature take its course”, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service account – and against the odds, the bison’s tale had a happy ending.
