Awful! Lightning strike kills more than 300 reindeer in Norway

Iightning in central Norway in what wildlife officials are calling an extraordinarily large natural disaster has killed more than 300 wild reindeer. The Norwegian Environment Agency has released spooky images showing a jumble of reindeer carcasses scattered across a small place on the Hardangervidda mountain plateau.

The agency says Friday 323 creatures were killed, including 70 calves, in the lightning storm. Agency spokesman Kjartan Knutsen told the AP it’s not uncommon for other wildlife or reindeer to be killed by lightning strikes, “but we have not heard about such numbers before.” He said reindeer tend to remain quite close to each other in bad weather, that could describe how many were killed simultaneously. Thousands of reindeer migrate across the barren Hardanangervidda tableland as the seasons change.