– It is very fascinating. After all, they are animals that you don’t exactly see in everyday life. Terje Korsmo from Kirkenær in Grue was supposed to fill up his snowmobile at Bograngen in Sweden, close to the border on Sunday. Suddenly he saw a brown moose. And just behind came a white one. These two moose, which are presumably twins, have been observed at the Swedish border. He went closer to take pictures. Korsmo kept a little distance, but neither of the two moose reacted. The moose stared back and continued to eat. – These turn out to be very tame, he says. But it is not the first time he has experienced this. The moose was not afraid of Terje Korsmo. Photo: Terje Korsmo – I’ve actually seen a white moose twice before, just two or three years ago, and in this way I’m starting to get good experience with white moose, he says. Moose in Norway There are no exact figures, but there are probably somewhere between 120,000 and 150,000 moose in Norway, writes the Carnivore Centre. The moose is the world’s largest game deer and Norway’s largest land mammal. The largest bulls (bulls) can weigh up to 800 kilos. The elk has a striking, almost prehistoric appearance, with a short and powerful build and long and powerful legs. Neck and neck are short and full, writes Store norske lexikon. At birth, moose calves are uniformly light brown or reddish brown. The brownish color is retained until they get the first greyish winter coat in September/October. The winter fur is thicker and grayer than the summer fur and is replaced again on the eve of spring, according to SNL. Only the males have antlers. Moose hunting is a tradition in several places in Norway, and according to Statistics Norway, over 25,000 moose are killed annually. Famous moose Knut Arne Gjems is leader of the Norwegian Hunters and Fishermen’s Association. He lives right next door, and has also seen the white moose. – But are the white moose hunted? – It varies slightly from area to area, and as in the area where they are located by Bograngen, they have actually protected the white moose, says Gjems. In this area, the white moose has been observed. Higher population of white moose The white color is due to a phenomenon called leukism. – It is very unusual, says senior researcher Erling Johan Solberg at the Norwegian Institute for Natural Sciences (NINA). White moose are most common along the Swedish border from Trysil to Halden. It is usually in these border areas that you find it most frequently, he says. And precisely in the Bograngen area several have been observed. – The population in the relevant area seems to have a higher than usual frequency of genes that code for this condition, says Solberg. This moose has recently wandered around Hol municipality in Buskerud. According to a zoologist, the spots are due to piebaldism. Photo: Thomas Mørch Equal chance of survival There are wolves in the area, and the senior researcher believes that white moose may be slightly more vulnerable than the brown moose. At the same time, the white moose is protected by several hunters. – So then it almost seems as if they have a higher probability of surviving in simple places. He says that when the elk is white, it is about the same as us humans having blue eyes, because it is a recessive gene. – Except that it is far less common than blue eyes, says Solberg. The white moose is rare, but more common along the Swedish border. In 2020, a white moose was also observed in the Eidskog area. Whether this is in the same family as the moose observed this week is not certain. Photo: Kjell-Erik Moseid Although the light gene is easily suppressed in nature, the white moose is just as viable as the brown moose. It can therefore reproduce and has a high chance of survival. It distinguishes it from animals that are white due to albinism. A few years ago Albin the albino moose became such a big celebrity that the hunting teams protected him, but he was felled by a Danish hunter.
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Terje from Kirkenær in Grue met a white moose at Bograngen in Sweden – news Innlandet – Local news, TV and radio
