More than 100 reindeer killed by freight trains in Norway 'bloodbath'

Sixty-five animals died on railway track on Saturday while further 41 killed last week during winter migration

Agence France-Presse in Oslo

Monday 27 November 2017 10.37 GMTLast modified on Monday 27 November 2017 23.12 GMT

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 dizzy,” the owner of the 65 dead reindeer, Ole Henrik Kappfjell, told NRK. “It’s a senseless animal tragedy … a psychological nightmare.”

Norway is home to about 250,000 semi-domestic reindeer and most of them live in the far north of the country. At this time of year, herders take the reindeer to the winter pastures in search of grazing grounds, a perilous journey as many animals are hit by cars and trains. Some also drown.

Photos taken by the documentary filmmaker Jon Erling Utsi showed dead reindeer lying in the blood-stained snow. Some were shot after they were left wounded in Saturday’s incident. “It was a nightmare to watch,” he told NRK.

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Proposed railway threatens Nepal rhino and tiger populations

February 2014: A plan to bisect one of Nepal’s most spectacular national parks Chitwan, which houses globally important populations of one-horned rhinoceros and the Bengal tiger, with railways and roads has caused alarm among conservationists.

Scientists from ALERT, the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers and Thinkers, have expressed great alarm about Nepalese and Indian government plans to bisect the park with a major leg of the East-­West Railway.

They have said that plans to push a major railroad and eight feeder roads into the park could be environmentally devastating, given the potential for increased fragmentation, disturbance and poaching of the park’s wildlife.

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Kazakhstan’s saiga threatened by new border fence and railway

Critically-endangered saiga antelope to face new barriers

September 2013. A new report by the UN's Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), called Saiga Crossing Options, has been published. The report describes and maps new threats for the charismatic saiga antelope.

Critically-endangered saiga antelope in Kazakhstan

The recovery of the critically-endangered saiga antelope in Kazakhstan faces serious challenges from new railways and boarder fences currently planned and constructed across Central Asia. The report not only identifies risks, but also proposes mitigation measures. FZS and partners in Kazakhstan are in close negotiation with the relevant ministries to discuss changes and technical modifications to avoid severe negative impacts to a species which only just recovered from their major decline in the 20th century.

The Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) together with partners in Kazakhstan has been engaged in the conservation of steppes and the recovery of the endangered saiga antelope since 2005 and is strongly concerned about current infrastructure plans in the region which cut through important saiga habitat.

The report was co-produced and co-funded by FZS as well as Fauna & Flora International (FFU)

Border fence and railway

While measures to reduce poaching have been an urgent priority, new threats from the effects of fencing and transport corridors are emerging. As a result of Kazakhstan's entry into a customs union with Russia and Belarus the nation has been strengthening its borders by constructing a fence. The purpose is border demarcation and to slow smuggling of narcotics. This fenced border will be an obstacle for saiga in their attempts to access habitat critical for their survival during the region's harsh winters. To add to the increasing difficulties facing saiga, a new railroad corridor is under construction (Shalkar - Beyneu and Zhezkazgan - Saksaulskiy) through the Ustyurt and Betpak-Dala saiga populations.

The report was co-produced and co-funded by FZS as well as Fauna & Flora International (FFI).

Read the full report here

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