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ELK

Elk herd causes Swedish motorway mayhem

A family of elk have been causing consternation for police and motorists alike on a stretch of Sweden’s main motorway, and with one animal already dead, hunters are set to be deployed in a bid to entice the remaining elk away from danger.

Elk herd causes Swedish motorway mayhem

Police in Linköping in central Sweden have received a spate of calls this week reporting that a number of elk had been sighted dangerously close to the E4 motorway which runs through the town, according to a report in the local Norrköpings Tidningar daily.

“We had up to three units out there, and despite using sirens and lights it unfortunately ended with one of the elks being hit by a truck,” said Jan Fryksén at Linköping police.

While no one was hurt in the accident, aside from the hapless elk, police plan to deploy a team of hunters on Saturday to try to shepherd the animals away from the motorway and back into the safety of the forests.

“It is a question of minimising the risk for accidents,” Fryksén said.

If the hunters are unsuccessful then the police will consider shooting the animals.

“But this is of course a last resort.”

Road accidents involving elk have increased dramatically in recent years, with over 1100 incidents recorded in the first two months of 2012 alone, according to the Älgskadefondsföreningen (literally: The elk damages fund association).

The body shape of the elk makes accidents particularly dangerous for motorists in comparison to other wild animals.

The animal’s long legs mean that the torso of the animal typically connects with a car windscreen on impact and thus pose the greatest danger for a motorist’s head with elks weighing in at anything from 150 to 300 kilogrammes.

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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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