Tag: reindeer

Rare hunting scene raises questions over polar bear diet

by Pierre-Henry DESHAYES Agence France-Presse OSLO, Norway (AFP) – A polar bear chases a reindeer into the water, drags it ashore and devours it, in a striking scene caught on film for the first time. With sea ice melting, the king of the Arctic may be changing its diet. The dramatic spectacle played out in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago on August 21, 2020 — in summer, the sea ice retreats and takes with it the seals […]

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Reindeer at risk from Arctic hot spell

by Pierre-Henry Deshayes Agence France-Presse Kautokeino, Norway (AFP) — Winter temperatures in Norway’s Lapland could rise dramatically this century, with potentially devastating consequences for the region’s reindeer and the indigenous Sami people who make their living herding them. A vast frozen tundra, the mountainous Finnmark plateau in Norway’s far north, is experiencing a hot spell — relatively speaking — wreaking havoc on the centuries-old Sami way of life. “We already feel the effects of global warming […]

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More than 300 reindeer killed by lightning in Norway

OSLO, Norway (AFP) —  More than 300 wild reindeer have been killed by lightning in southern Norway, Norwegian officials said Monday, in the largest such incident known to date. The 323 reindeers, including 70 young, were found on Friday by a gamekeeper on the Hardangervidda plateau, a national park where Europe’s largest herd of some 10,000 wild reindeer roam freely. Television footage showed the animals’ dead bodies lying close together on the ground. “There were […]

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