A lightning strike has reportedly pour down over 300 caribou in the postcard - favorable earth of Hardangervidda in Norway .
At least 323 Greenland caribou have been find dead within a space of just 50 to 80 beat ( 160 to 260 feet ) between Møsvatn and Kalhovd in Telemark , Hardangervidda . Five more had to be euthanized . A Texas Ranger from the Norwegian Nature Inspectorate ( NNI ) came across the bizarre quite a little in a remote part of the park on Friday evening , theNorwegian Environment Agencyreports .
The area was subject to a massive thunderstorm that afternoon , lead the NNI to believe the mass - death was a result of a thunderstrike . To reassert this , the NNI fly eight investigator to this distant hunt realm on Sunday for read the bodies and take sampling back to the lab . The tissue paper samples will also be analyzed for chronic wasting disease , which affected a grouping of reindeer in the area earlier this year .
lots of carcase in the J. J. Hill of Hardangervidda , as experience on Sunday . range of a function credit : Havard Kjøntvedt , Environment Directorate / the Norwegian Nature Inspectorate .
“ They were lying there dead in a fairly saturated field , ” NNI spokesman Knut Nylend told NTB , The Localreports . " Reindeer are pack animate being and are often close together . During a overweight thunderstorm , they may have gathered even nigher together out of fear .
“ We ’ve get word about animals being struck by lightning and killed , but I do n’t remember try about lightning kill brute on this scale before , " he added . " We do n’t roll in the hay if it was one or more lighting strike ; that would only be venture . "
Around 10,000 reindeer migrate over an area of 8,000 square kilometers ( 3,100 square miles ) of Hardangervidda , which is a uncouth jaunt for tramper , tourer , and hunters .
According to theGuinness World Records , the largest memorialise number of cows kill by a lightning work stoppage was in New South Wales , Australia , in 2005 , when 68 cow died from the violent storm . Although there is a lack of register grounds of other animate being being killed en - hoi polloi by lightning , it looks like this consequence in Norway could be up there with the deadliest ever .
