More than 200 Reindeer were found dead on Svalbard Island in Norway, researchers said that the animals were starved to death due to climate change.

Researchers said that climate change the access to the plants reindeer usually eats.

Researchers (Ecologists) that are working with the NPI (Norwegian Polar Institute) conduct surveys for reindeer populations on the island every year.

The Svalbard Island is located between Norway and the North Pole.

The findings from the ecologists who conducted the survey, which lasted for 10 weeks, concluded that the reindeer population on the island went down and the reindeer on the island was thinner.

Ecologists also said that hundreds of reindeer carcasses showed that they died of starvation.

During an interview with NRK, Åshild Ønvik Pedersen, a Norwegian Polar Institute Ecologist, said, “It’s scary to find so many dead animals.”

Ecologists said that climate change is bringing in warmer temperatures on the island, which brought in more precipitation.

Ecologists believe that heavy rainfall that was experienced in December is responsible for the deaths of the reindeer.

Onvik Pedersen said, “Some of the mortality is natural because there were so many calves last year. But the large number we see now is due to heavy rain, which is due to global warming.”

The high numbers of calves born last year are also being considered in increasing the death toll of reindeer on the island.

Ecologists said that young calves are the weakest and are usually the first ones to die in harsh conditions that were experienced on the island.