Moose released into national park in Denmark

Next year, two new national nature parks will open in Denmark. There are plans to release moose in one of them.

The Danish government has plans to create 15 new national nature parks across the country, which will be areas of unspoiled nature. Two of them will open next year. In one of them, in Gribskov, moose will be allowed to live.

– In Gribskov, our biologists have assessed that it makes sense. The plan is that we will have a nature that manages itself, as it did before man came and cut down forests, made plans and so on, says Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke to the Danish national broadcaster DR, and continues:

– We need some large grazing animals, and it can be different kinds of animals, but here the biologists have pointed out that the moose can do something good, he says.

The second park to open next year is in Fussingsø, and three more will open the following year. The rest may take longer to open. Before the moose can be introduced, the residents of Gribskov must give their consent.

Moose were common in Denmark during the Stone Age, but were hunted so heavily that they became extinct. In 1999, a moose swam across Öresund and into the country, but died shortly after in a train accident. In 2015, five moose were imported from Sweden, and today there are about 20 moose in a large fenced area in northern Jutland.