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ELK

Fright night for elks in west Sweden

The elk population in the county of Halland, western Sweden, took somewhat of a blow on Friday evening as six animals died in the space of an hour, after colliding with traffic in separate incidents.

Fright night for elks in west Sweden

Just north of Kungsbacka, two collisions were reported only 500 metres apart from each other.

Police are at a loss to explain why so many accidents happened in such a short space of time in one evening.

”You often hear that elks tend to move about more at dusk or dawn,” Dan Lewstam, from Halland police said.”

”But this was after five o clock in the evening when it was already dark outside.”

No people were reported to have been injured in the accidents.

However, all six elks died, some due to the impact, while others were later put down by hunters called in by the police.

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ELK

‘Stop taking selfies with elk,’ police warn Stockholmers

Stockholm police have asked the public to stop taking photos with elk, after several of the wild animals had to be killed after getting agitated by selfie-takers.

'Stop taking selfies with elk,' police warn Stockholmers
Whether in nature or in the city, if you do see an elk in Sweden, always keep a distance. Photo: Lola Akinmade Åkerström/imagebank.sweden.se

Police needed to shoot the elk after they wandered into residential areas including Nacka and Enskede in the capital, Mitt i Stockholm reports.

“An elk that has got lost can usually find its way back if it is calm. But when people run up and take pictures, it becomes stressed and aggressive. It is utterly misanthropic and it’s outrageous that people do not understand better,” police officer Kenneth Kronberg, responsible for the National Game Accident Council (NVR), told the newspaper. 

“Game wardens have agreed that there is nothing wrong with the elk in the city. However, they get very stressed because there are so many people trying to take pictures. That’s why we have to kill the elk, because of 08-ers [a pejorative term for Stockholmers] who think the animal world looks like a Walt Disney movie.”

As well as avoiding taking photos with the animals, police also urged the public to avoid attempting to pet or stroke them, or getting too close. If you see a wild elk, instead you should keep a safe distance away.

In 2017, a rare while elk drew crowds of visitors hoping to catch a glimpse after a video went viral, and again police had to warn the public to treat the animal with care and avoid approaching it. The elk then grew aggressive, charging at a dog-walker, which led police to say they would need to kill the elk if they could not chase it away from the residential area.

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