Sunbathing elk give Swedish rescue services a scare

At 8am on Friday morning, an alert went out to the emergency services in the town of Övertorneo on Sweden’s northern border with Finland, reporting that five of the animals had crashed through the thin spring ice on the Tornio river. 

 

But after racing the 30km to the site, the officers dispatched discovered that the elk had in fact never been happier. 

 

“When we got there and looked out, there were five elk lying in a small bay and sunning themselves,” Magnus Nilsson, who heads the rescue services in the region, told the SVT broadcaster.

 

“It looked like they were in the water, but they were just lying on the ice and sunbathing. They were lying down and feeling good.”

 

Elk fairly frequently fall through the ice in spring in Sweden, and Swedes often feel it is their duty to rescue them. 

 

A video of a Swedish couple rescuing an elk last year outside Örnsköldsvik went viral on social media.