Drunken Elk Stuck in a Tree

Most of our stories at GeeksAreSexy concentrate on technology, but we also touch on science. And today we have a tale that involves biology, chemistry and physics.

The biology involves a Swedish elk. That’s an animal that, while known as an elk in Europe, is called a moose in North America. The animal’s species name is Alces Alces, and it’s different to what is known as an elk in North America, which is Cervus Canadensis. (For more on that confusion, check out the fantastic correction/clarification in this article.)

The chemistry comes from an apple tree in Saro, a town to the south of Gothenburg. The apples had begun naturally fermenting, to the point that over-consumption could have an intoxicating effect.

And the physics comes from said elk eating said apples, apparently throughout most of an entire day, having been seen in the morning almost running into a vehicle. By evening time it had become exceedingly drunk, climbed up to get even more apples, and wound up entangled in branches several feet off the ground.

Fortunately local man Per Johannsson called the police, who sent an “on-call hunter.” The hunter, Johannson and neighbors tried sawing down branches to free the elk, but eventually the fire brigade had to come to bend the tree to the point that the elk could slide out. It was still alive and the next morning had begun moving away, presumably with the mother of all headaches.