European Railroad Discussion > Nordic Countries: Elks, Reindeer and Trains

As our friend SOO pointed out, elks can be very harmful to trains. 

To plunge into the subject here is a short story by pictures:

1 - 2 ) Well over 500 kilos of elk watching in Gällivare, Sweden my old Volvo but it seems like in the end he decided it was not harmful. Female elks are not quite as huge, but still weight around 400 - 500 kilograms / 800 - 1000 lbs. 

3) A youngster (male) near Svappavaara, trying to figure out if the car is of any danger. Elks are herd animals, being hunted, so most of the time they run if scared.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/15 05:48 by McKey.

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4) Smelling is always a good way to figure out if there is any danger...

5 - 6) Nay, this Volvo is of no danger...so I better keep eating to get strong enought to survive next winter, running scared on hunting season and to fight for females next fall...

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To more serious subjects, here is picture of the month from 4rail.net, a VR owned LOK2000 model (Finnish class Sr2) that hit an elk mother with two calves at higher speeds. Train was running from Helsinki to Oulu (one of the IC2 trains), and looks like despite the havoc it could still run back before getting fixed. It often happens that pneumatic systems are smashed hitting large wild animals like bear, elk, or reindeer herd, so continuing after incident is not always guaranteed.
Below a similar but much shorter train (one of Pori regionals) stopping at Tampere Main.
Pictures by Matias.

For more pics of the months please follow the llink: http://www.4rail.net/gallery_pictmonth_2015.php#pm201503elkfin
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/15 05:45 by McKey.

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Here is some more to the subject: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,3711421

Unless your "Elk", what we call Moose, are different, these are the only members of the Deer family that are not herd animals, rather they are solitary except during breeding season.

You are absolutely right, they don't live in herds like reindeer. But they don't dislike being in groups either. (The Sr2 above hit three animals simultaneously)  Aren't moose and elk slightly different species: North American needs a bigger version as the cars are bigger too, so the driving safety is always optimized to vehicle size :)  (a very bad joke, insn't it)

SOO6617 Wrote:
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> Unless your "Elk", what we call Moose, are
> different, these are the only members of the Deer
> family that are not herd animals, rather they are
> solitary except during breeding season.

North American Male Elk    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk#/media/File:Rocky_Mountain_Bull_Elk.jpg

North American Male Moose   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose#/media/File:Moose_superior.jpg


Notice the difference in the Antlers.

Looks like we have confusion here, something belonging to that 30% that is wrong in wikipedia or some of its languages. So beware: only 70% of wikipedia was found to be right in one of the studies. I consider this a very low figure, meaning wikipedia is not to be trusted any more than any other source.

Back to elks:

My pictures are of Alces alces (Elk living in Nordic), which is considered different species from Alces Americanus (Moose living in North America etc.) despite their obvious shared looks (thus the unintended confusion in our discussion). Seems like I learned this time that in some parts of the World Elk seems to mean what we here in Nordic consider "deer". We have lots of Odocoileus virginianus, Rangifer tarandus (actually two different species, one of which we know as reindeer), Dama dama and smaller Capreolus capreolus.

Hitting any of these can cause problems to cars. Ddriving around with Gerry and his son in Southern Finland we once saw a Volkwagen Golf hit by Capreolus capreolus with speed, and the car was so damaged it had to be towed away. Hitting hugely larger Alces alces (Elk) or Odocoileus virginianus (large white tailed deer from North America, now common in Nordic countries too) can cause considerable damage even to trains, or any car for that matter. Hitting these is actually quite common, but I only know that about 2500 reindeer are run over an killed by traffic in Sweden yearly.

Here is a picture showing why hitting elk on high poles is often fatal to normal car passengers (unless driving Volvo or similar car to withstand the impact): http://www.hirvivaroitin.fi/eshop/

1-3) Below pictures of a heard of Rangifer tarandus, the one that we here know simply as reindeer. These are half domesticated, not scared of human beings and unfortunately totally oblivious to cars and trains. Where cars can brake and detour and wait until the road is cleared again, trains roll over these herds, thus the large number of killed animals, 1200 yearly  on Malmbana alone. This herd is just 100 meters of the well fenced section of Malmbana.  
 

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North American Elk (Cervus Canadensis) and are uniformly larger than all Whitetail Deer (O. Virginianus), typical Males weigh over 1000 lbs, with the largest recorded male weighing just over 1300 lbs.

To add to the confusion your Reindeer (Rangifer Tarandus) is called a Caribou in North America.

SOO6617 Wrote:
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> North American Elk (Cervus Canadensis) and are
> uniformly larger than all Whitetail Deer (O.
> Virginianus), typical Males weigh over 1000 lbs,
> with the largest recorded male weighing just over
> 1300 lbs.
>
> To add to the confusion your Reindeer (Rangifer
> Tarandus) is called a Caribou in North America.

At 350 degrees F, 180 C, Gas mark 4 (?), it takes a LONG time to cook a whole one....

Yes it does! :)

Even if you know how to drain the blood from animal after accident...or else the predators and scavengers will take care of the poor animal. Here is what is reamining of reindeer by the Malmbana snow shed number 6, probably seeking a shelter there from elements and soon run over by one of the frequent trains. 

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