Drunk moose gets stuck in tree in Sweden
Published 12:01 am Saturday, September 10, 2011
STOCKHOLM — An apparently drunk moose cow was freed by emergency services after she got trapped in the fork of an apple tree in south-western Sweden, the online edition of the Goteborgs-Posten newspaper reported Friday.
The animal was believed to have gorged herself on fermented apples, and then became snagged in the tree.
Per Johansson told the newspaper how he heard a noise late Tuesday from a neighbor’s garden in Saro, near the west coast city of Gothenburg.
To his surprise he saw the large animal trapped in the fork of the tree. Along with some neighbors he tried to saw off a branch but the effort did not succeed. Emergency services deployed a crane to bend the tree and free the tipsy moose.
A hunter was on standby in case the animal charged or was badly hurt, but did not need to intervene. The day after the ordeal, the moose cow seemed calm and was seen resting in the neighbor’s garden, Johansson said.
Moose — but also birds — have been known to get intoxicated on fermenting fruit and berries.
Ola Selin, a hunter and guide at the Royal Hunt Museum, said moose “love apples” and can smell fermenting fruit from a great distance. Therefore it was advisable to collect windfall fruit.
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(c)2011 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany)
Distributed by MCT Information Services
