During this year's reindeer count in Adventdalen, researcher Åshild Ønvik Pedersen discovered an unprecedented number of reindeer carcasses, indicating a significant die-off.

Because of the changeable weather an ice crust arose on the snow and reindeer could not get food on their own. Reindeer herders fed the main herd with compound feed. The dead reindeer, most likely, have strayed from the main herd.

Grazing conditions are very poor this winter in Norway as an unusual amount of snow forces the reindeer to dig really deep to find food.

Hiila Inga is concerned about the health of his reindeer. His community herds 8000 head each year, between traditional grazing lands in the mountain and the forests further east.

Sixty-one thousand reindeer starved to death in the northwestern reaches of the Russian tundra in November 2013 in the largest recorded mortality event of its kind.