The White Moose

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white mooseYou didn’t know there are white moose, did you? No wonder if you didn’t, it doesn’t exist more than 100, maybe 150, and they all live in Värmland.

They’re not albinos – albinism is a defect and albinos usually do not live long enough to have offspring – these babies are leucistic, i.e. they have a genetic mutation which makes them white. Brown moose cows can get white calfs and white cows may have brown calfs. The mutation seems to have occurred about 100 years ago in western Värmland. The first reports talk about one lonely white bull who was roaming around in the vicinity of Eda and Köla, 100 years ago, and it’s his offspring that now is counted with three digits.

Imagine yourself in a Swedish summer night, seeing a 500 kg moose bull that slowly comes out into the open, from the shadows in the forest. That’s a powerful experience.

Maybe it’s not quite accurate to call a 500 kg moose a “baby”, but they’re beautiful,don’t you think? I feel like I’d like to pet this one’s muzzle and feel his beard… but if I got that close I’d be dead, of course.

The wild picture comes from http://utefoto-tommyjohansson.blogspot.se. white moose sweden

The preservation status of this strain is threatened… some hunters refuse to kill white moose, others claim that they should all be killed. By the way, if you happen to come close to Dalsland Center, in Håverud, just a few miles south of the border to Värmland, there is a stuffed white moose on display.

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