Freight trains in Norway have mowed down over 100 reindeer in the northern part of the country in four days since November 22, AFP reported, quoting state broadcaster NRK. While 41 were killed between Wednesday and Friday, one train mowed down 65 deer on Saturday.
The animals were killed while crossing a train track that runs through a route they follow towards the coast before winter sets in. State-owned company Bane Nor, which operates the country’s railway network, said because of a “technical failure” the warning that the animals were on the track did not reach the driver of the train that ran over the 65 animals, The Telegraph reported.
“I am so angry that I am dizzy,” Ole Henrik Kappfjell, the owner of the 65 dead animals, told the news channel. Torstein Appfjell, a reindeer herder, told AP that the death of so many deer in such a way was “totally tragic” and unprecedented. “They mean almost everything to us and the animals form the basis of our existence,” he said. “Such a big recess in our reindeer herd is catastrophic.”
In 2016, over 300 reindeer were found dead across a hillside on the Hardangervidda plateau. Some experts had said that lightning was the most likely cause of the death of the animals, but many people raised doubts about that claim.
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