GÄSTRIKLAND, Sweden — It’s just past 7 p.m. here in the woods along the eastern coast of Sweden. A handful of people are waiting, some of them for the past two hours, peering out from inside a small wooden cabin. The cabin sits at the top of a hill and has sweeping views of the […]
Tag: reindeer
World’s largest reindeer herd targeted by poachers for antler velvet
Moscow – The scene was pure carnage. Dozens of reindeer carcasses were sprawled on the sandy shore of the Khatanga River or floating in the current toward the Arctic Ocean, as if the animals had drowned in mid-stream. The story of what actually befell these reindeer on the Taymyr Peninsula, in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region, however, […]
‘Landscape of fear’: what a mass of rotting reindeer carcasses taught scientists
In August 2016, a park ranger stumbled upon 323 dead wild tundra reindeer in Norway’s remote Hardangervidda plateau. They had been killed in a freak lightning event. But instead of removing the carcasses, the park decided to leave them where they were, allowing nature to take its course – and scientists to study this island […]
Svalbard reindeer rebounding better than hoped after nearly going extinct
Reindeer and caribou populations have been declining dramatically over the past few decades. But one subspecies of reindeer seems to be doing better, anew study has found. The wild Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus), which lives in the harsh archipelago of Svalbard off Norway in the Arctic Ocean, was nearly hunted to extinction in the […]
Rich trophy hunters pay to shoot reindeer in wild – say it’s ‘magical’ experience
Rich trophy hunters are paying to shoot reindeer in the wild. Brits are being offered the chance to join a trip where they can stalk and kill real-life Rudolphs in a national park. The animals being targeted by trophy hunters belong to the last surviving population of wild reindeer in Europe and roam in two […]
More than 100 reindeer killed by freight trains in Norway ‘bloodbath’
More than 100 reindeer have been killed by freight trains in northern Norway in the past days in what has been called a senseless tragedy. One train killed 65 deer on a track on Saturday while 41 died between Wednesday and Friday, the public broadcaster NRK reported late on Sunday. “I’m so angry that I’m […]
Reindeer shrink as climate change in Arctic puts their food on ice
Reindeer are shrinking on an Arctic island near the north pole as a result of climate change that has curbed the amount of winter food available to the animals, scientists said on Monday. The average weight of adult reindeer on Svalbard, a chain of islands north of Norway, fell from 55kg (121lb) to 48kg (106lb) […]
More than 300 reindeer killed by lightning in Norway
A lightning strike killed more than 300 reindeer in Norway’s Hardangervidda region last Friday. At their last count, officials of the Norwegian Environment Agency reported the death of a herd of 323 reindeer of both sexes, including 70 calves. Five reindeer were severely injured in the storm and had to be euthanized. Lightning strikes have killed […]
