Comparable death toll has been recorded only once before, says Norwegian Polar Institute

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

About 200 reindeer have been found dead from starvation in the Arctic archipelago Svalbard, an unusually high number, the Norwegian Polar Institute has said, pointing the finger at climate crisis.

During an annual census of the wild reindeer population on the group of islands about 1,200km (746 miles) from the north pole, three researchers from the institute identified the carcasses of about 200 deer believed to have starved to death last winter.

Ashild Onvik Pedersen, the head of the census, said the high degree of mortality was a consequence of climate crisis, which according to climate scientists, is happening twice as fast in the Arctic as the rest of the world.

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“Climate change is making it rain much more. The rain falls on the snow and forms a layer of ice on the tundra, making grazing conditions very poor for animals,” she said.

In winter, Svalbard reindeer find vegetation in the snow using their hooves, but alternating freezing and thawing periods can create layers of impenetrable ice, depriving the reindeers of nourishment.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ecologist Ashild Onvik Pedersen examines a reindeer cadaver in the Arctic archipelago Svalbard. Photograph: Elin Vinje Jenssen/AFP/Getty Images

According to Onvik Pedersen, a comparable death toll has been recorded only once before – after the winter of 2007-2008 – since monitoring of the reindeer population started 40 years ago.

The increased mortality is also due in part to a significant increase in the number of reindeer in the Norwegian archipelago. That is partly thanks to climate crisis and the warmer summers, meaning more individuals compete in the same grazing areas.

Since the 1980s, the number of reindeer has doubled in Svalbard, and now stands at about 22,000, according to the Norwegian Polar Institute.