Expert calls for six-digit fines for elk deaths

Torstein Storaas, an assistant professor at Hedmark University College, argued that fines of up to 100,000 NOK ($17,000) should be levied on the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and Norwegian National Rail Administration for every elk that is killed over a certain threshhold. 

 

"I think the only way to stop the collisions is to give the responsibility to someone, and it's the roads and the trains that kill the elk," he told The Local."I think if the fee they had to pay was high enough they would solve the problem very fast." 

 

Nearly 15,000 collisions between vehicles and elk have been recorded over the last five years, with 400 in the first two months of 2014 alone. 

 

Storaas suggested the threshold should be set at roughly one elk death per five kilometres, and called on politicians in regions with high elk populations to take his proposal to their coming party conventions.