In the past week, we’ve covered reports of multiple people gored by bison while taking selfies and a report yesterday about an angry elephant breaking up a dinner party. Fair enough, but what about collisions with elk on Sweden’s rural roads?
Sweden has logged 27,000 animal collisions with cars so far this year, and 350 of those in August alone involved elks, which range out at about half a ton each. Hitting one is not a small matter, and has often been fatal to driver and elk.
Now, a non-profit organization working to reduce road accidents, and whose name is the possibly jaw-breaking ÄlgskadefondsfÖreningen, is awarding an innovation prize to Stockholm resident Benjamin Eliasson, who has developed a system of sensors to be hung on trees and poles in unfenced rural areas where elk and other large animals graze. When they come into a zone near the road, the sensors would set off flashing lights on roadside poles, warning motorists.
Vehicle collisions with animals kill more people than dog, snake and bee bites combined.
And while the photo you use shows an animal that weighs about 1000 pounds, that animal is a moose. I know it’s tough for city folks to tell them apart.
Here is what a bull elk looks like….
Here’s what a cow elk looks like….