Lightning Strike in Norway Kills 300 Reindeer

Norway’s iconic reindeer made headlines last month, but not for a happy reason.

A lightning strike on Norway’s stunning Hardangervidda plateau in the southern part of the country killed some 323 reindeer, including 70 calves and five reindeer that had to be put down due to severe injuries related to the storm.

Though lightning strikes have been known to kill large numbers of animals in one fell swoop, this particular strike seems unprecedented.

“We are not familiar with any previous happening on such a scale,” Kjartan Knutsen, an official at the Nature Inspectorate, part of the Norwegian Environment Agency, told The New York Times. “Individual animals do from time to time get killed by lightning, and there are incidents where sheep have been killed in groups of 10 or even 20, but we have never seen anything like this.”

“Reindeer often huddle together in groups during thunderstorms,” Knutsen continued. “It is a strategy they have to survive, but in this case their survival strategy might have cost them their life. The corpses are all lying in one big group, piled together.”

The Hardangervidda is a popular area with hikers and it’s known for its beauty. The hiking trails are relatively flat compared to more mountainous areas of Norway.