Image: Evgeniy Volkov via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Tens of thousands of reindeer have starved to death in Russia over the last decade, due to retreating sea ice caused by global warming.
Researchers from the University of Lapland in Finland estimate that 61,000 deer died in 2013 because of unseasonable weather. That’s almost a quarter of the population. In 2006, another 20,000 died because of similar conditions.
So what exactly happened? In both years, unusually warm temperatures caused the sea ice near the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia to retreat instead of building back up as usual at the end of summer. The high levels of humidity led to heavy rains, which soaked the snow covering the ground. When temperatures suddenly plunged after the rainstorms, that slush turned into an impenetrable mass that lasted for months.
Image: Evgeniy Volkov via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
According to researchers, adult reindeer can usually use their hooves to smash through up to 2 centimeters of snow. But in these cases, the ice was so thick that the deer were cut off from their food supply. Without access to the lichen and other vegetation they rely on, the reindeer starved to death en masse.
Scientists worry that if this happens again this year, the impact could be dire. What’s more, officials have demanded that 250,000 reindeer be culled because of overgrazing and an anthrax outbreak that killed more than 2,000 deer and at least one boy this summer.
Image via Wikipedia (CC BY-SA-2.0)
Another incident of mass death would further devastate the dwindling population and the local Nenets herders who rely on the reindeer for clothes, food, and their livelihood.
