Lightning Bolt Strikes And Kills Deer Herd In Wisconsin

I ran across this story from the archives of OutdoorLife.com from 2010. Besides being sad story, it is a classic tale of the shear force of Mother Nature and natural selection.

Although there have been a number of these deadly lightning strikes killing herds of deer around the world, this story hits a little closer to home.

On march 22nd in 2010 Juan Gomez, a DNR Conservation officer was called out to a hay field in Kenosha, Wisconsin to investigate several deer struck and killed by a bolt of lightning. DNR Officer Gomez found the deer strewn around the Kenosha hay field.

Get our free mobile app

Evidently, a day earlier, while standing in the hay field, a severe thunderstorm was passing through the area and a bolt of lightning struck the deer. Being as the grass was wet from the rain, it's thought that even though only a couple of the herd were hit by the lightning bolt, the rest of the deer casualties were caused by electricity from the lightning bolt traveling through the wet grass.

This wasn't a unique happening. Officer Gomez's team would later find that there were similar instances of deer herds killed by lighting in Iowa, Texas and around the world. Six years later more than 300 deer met their fate the same way in Norway in 2016 from a single bolt of lightning.

It's doubtful that these deer suffered from the bolt of lightning. Most likely they were killed instantly and didn't feel a thing. However, it's still a sad tale but Mother Nature certainly doesn't discriminate.

With thunderstorm season officially underway, steer clear of lighting by staying indoors and away from windows. Never seek shelter under a tree and if stranded outside and keep as low of profile as possible.