More than 200 reindeer have died of Arctic famine
Norwegian scientists have discovered about XNUMX dead reindeer in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Experts from the Norwegian Polar Institute are convinced that the animals died of starvation. They believe that the unusually large number of dead animals is a consequence of climate change, which is also felt in that archipelago.
Every summer, researchers at the Norwegian Polar Institute study the tundra of the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard to map reindeer populations on islands about 1.200 km from the North Pole. This year, they discovered the carcasses of starving animals to death. Scientists say that in the last forty years, as long as the population of Svalbard reindeer has been tracked, a similar mortality rate has been recorded only once - during the winter of 2007-2008.
The project's author, Ashild Onwick Pedersen, blames people for the high death rate, saying reindeer have died from global warming, which climatologists say is twice as fast in the Arctic as in the rest of the world.
"Climate change is causing significantly more rainfall," Pedersen said. "In fact, the rain usually falls on the snow, after which a layer of ice forms in the tundra, which makes it difficult for these animals to graze," she explained.
Reindeer are extremely important animals for the Arctic ecosystem. Norwegian experts say global warming is facilitating the spread of several aggressive plant species that thrive there, and reindeer, as the region's largest herbivores, manage to "destroy" them by feeding on them. Scientists fear that without reindeer, the Nordic landscape could look completely different in the future.