Moose - Giants of Sweden's Forests | Free Documentary Nature

up in the heights of northern Europe the forest is home to royalty [Music] it is the king or the forest so we're respectable animal they have a lot of character this iconic species is of great importance to Sweden moose a game and a magnet for tourists but they also present a huge danger to traffic and the forestry itself that's why the country counts on a very special expert the moose detective [Applause] [Music] in southern Sweden lies the island of bullet it's famous for its mills and ancient Viking graves [Music] every year the royal family spends their summer vacation here at castles solid [Music] recently a problem is developed on Erland regarding its moose the island has called upon the moose detective to investigate well the moose in Sweden is by far the most valuable wildlife that we have it's such an important animal that concerns so many people and if something is wrong with the moose population in Sweden everyone wants to know what is going on Frederick's thing backer and his team are asked to find the cause as a first step he decides to immobilize the moose cow the mission is not easy the dart recoils the cow escapes her now Fredrik marks the law start with red tape he will collect it later every effort is made to save the MU scarves for a few years now on Erland they've been dying shortly after birth it's a mystery it's now February and the depths of winter hit erland tough icy conditions particularly out in the wilderness Frederic gives the cow time to recover from her fall but the sooner he gets her darted the easier it will be on the cow the chase will cost resources but without this pursuit Frederic wouldn't be able to attach satellite collars to the moose from their data he wants to learn where the moose eat and sleep and to where they migrate on the team state veterinarian your Nass Malmsteen he examines the cow for diseases working with such an beautiful animal that's almost a blessing gets to become a real intimate relation and the Moose is they are individuals just like us and some moose you remember really well because some are so special it's really an honor to to be working with them and there's so much character moose can be very protective creatures it's an amazing animal to work with large dignified respectable and beautiful truly amazing they're magnificent and cow they mean so much to Scandinavia and always have Scandinavian or Denis as soon as the satellite collar is attached Frederick and yawn ass look for clues to resolve the mystery the size indicates whether the animal has developed correctly any trace could help at this stage no matter how small we're looking for deer flies these are blood sucking insects that can spread disease they fly in autumn and when they land on a moose they drop their wings and stay there they weaken the animal but I can't find any a disease could be an explanation for the calves early deaths additionally the detectives use another very special high-tech device it's a mortality implant that we put down in the stomach and it communicates with the caller and we can measure the body temperature of the moose this way Fredrick will know when a collared moose dies the animal can be examined immediately if it has any disease the biologists will detect it and quickly take the appropriate action I think it's a lot of detective work I think that's a little bit how we think we come up with an idea we observe the nature we wonder what is going on we set up a hypothesis and we maybe find answer for part of the answer hopefully this cow will deliver answers soon we have some ideas and I'm sure we will at least come up with parts of the answer what's going on there within these next year's if it's a riddle it's a riddle to be solved Frederic's operation site is down in the south of sweden close to the eastern coast the island of berlin [Music] the South Overland boasts a very special landscape it's a unesco world heritage site which for hundreds of years was nurtured by farmers like johann Pawan [Music] the fallow deer and the moose around the lighthouse of autumn be a very dear to Johann as a former gamekeeper to the king of Sweden he took care of them for a long time yeah he did King I've been working for us a few years I know him a bit them he's very interesting about the population of busan everland he's interesting the most of things becoming to wild animals and he's like the rest of the swedish people who you see interested about the nature he saw her was she interesting about hunt if johan had his choice the hunters would have to be prepared to make some sacrifices going down there last year's so we have to stop the moose hunting for you living it coughs from coming out we have to take care of these animals he's born now and see what happens in the future a hunting ban will be a stars but it wouldn't be enough to secure the survival of orleans moose no more than around 500 animals now remain moose detected frederick is still searching for moose cows at sunset I think it's amazing flying over stood on violet it's like a savanna we have in Sweden and then all these stone walls kilometres after kilometer that has been built several generations of people on Atlantis it's really breathtaking in the past farmers kept their livestock out here little is left of that at this point nowadays trees get a chance to grow and conveniently provide cover for the moose despite their sheer size it's only as they move that the animals become visible this cow already has a collar Frederic wants to exchange it the batteries of the transmitter are loved this time around the first dart hits its target the cow is an old acquaintance she's a lands only moose with a name cemento named after a cement works close by to where she was collared for the first time with an estimated age of nine years she's in the prime of her life and therefore a good case study to follow particularly in the event of a future pregnancy one last shot of the antidote and the inspection is over you're so good cement oh yes you're a sweetheart throughout the whole of Sweden there are around 400,000 moose altogether larger roads are protected by moose fences and for good reason every year there are about 4,500 accidents involving moose some of them fatal a mu standing on this road will be very high and you basically hit the legs of it and it will fall under on the motor head and come in through the windshield many many other collisions it rolls over on the roof but many other lethal accidents for humans have been that it comes through the windshield and if you get several hundred or kilos of moose over you it's you can just imagine and it's not only on the roads the Moose caused further damage elsewhere with his hunting dog Vitra Frederic visits a plantation this is where the moose search for food even in the harsh winter they managed to find green shoes but the forestry pays the price [Music] there's been quite a few moves in this plantation during the winters there's a lot of phases there you see the top chute whites we have a bark eating we also have fresh stem breaks a lot of these side shoot two bites also so so this this pine will never be anything when it comes to timber quality feeding stations with balls of hay is supposed to keep the moose away from plantations and streets the movement profiles from the satellite collars show that these seem to be working the data reveals exactly where the mooskaa posed a threat as they cross streets between their sleeping sites and feeding grounds [Music] even an encounter on foot is supposed to be risky for humans I wouldn't say it's dangerous at all of course you have to be careful it's a big animal and you never know what animals but the female who start to sneak up in on in the spring they're really individuals some stay really close just when we're handling and weighing the calf they might be a little bit too close sometimes but it's just a matter of Shh standing up and shouting a little bit they will go away some other they just run off and you never will see them while handling the coffin then they return a thousand kilometers to the north of Berlin lies in your home to the Moose detectives headquarters at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences SL you at his computer Frederick tracks the movements of all of the collared moose in the country approximately 200 animals including the ones on her land what we see from the colonies is that that the female moose they try to time that they are in a good spot when they do the carving was that when that's when they need good qualitative food for for lactating when they're giving birth to their cough Frederick is hoping that his monitoring of the mooses behavior during the birthing period will explain why so many calves are dying at that time but first there's some bad news a satellite caller reports a dead cow [Music] in a small patch of trees on her land a cow has perished to discover the cause veterinarian Eunice wants to conduct an autopsy on location the teeth are worn down there's not much left of them I would like to take the jaw to the lab to find out how old she is let's see if we can turn her over DK has already set in and the cow is full of gas it's not a pleasant task to cut her open this is a liver it's very congested it's really hard and it's not supposed to be hard so she might have some liver disease or cirrhosis as we say it it's synonymous with the type of liver that alcoholics get every lead however small is important a sign of a disease could be an explanation for the early deaths of the cars on the island finally the autopsy produces a preliminary result I'm suspecting a combination of old age and some metabolism because the teeth there there are very very worn out there they're really worn down and she has not been able to chew her cud as we say properly I don't think but there could also be something underneath at the laboratory he discovers that the old cow had more or less starve to death the reason being the worn-out teeth are not the liver as suspected it seems that diet is a problem on Erland and it's quite apparent that it plays its part in the early deaths of the calves there are several factors going on in Ireland and one of them might be the food resources for the mother then when she's because the the the Carson Ariel under the day most of them died were a young within a day's within two weeks and then they only drink milk so it's the quality of the females the mother's milk that is crucial isn't the cow getting enough nutrients to produce high quality mother's milk what could have changed [Music] Frederick has a suspicion for several years now Spring has arrived earlier and earlier the analyst of the team Navin der Singh has the details this shows the monthly changes in green Ness over the Ireland and you can see from January to the end of the year you can see that the island is starting to sprout and getting green already in April mm-hmm so in late April that's maybe when they should convert but now these last years we have even had some a lot moose females that I give birth in June so you suspect that there is a mismatch between them they're carving and I think so timing that they think they cough cough too late and then do you want this really high quality yeah I see leaves and stuff like that to get good milk for the cops because in June you won't have any fresh leaves anymore to get this really good qualitative food it's - yes - woody already do you think we can see any patterns of that in their movement we know that these females move in a restricted way when the calf is born because the calf cannot move with them so that could be possible to compare then with the Moose mother's inland and then we will see that the moose mothers in Ireland will move much more after giving birth yeah that could be likely hypothesis we're testing but for now Fredrik calls it a day [Music] time for dinner and today serving roast moose the best from person to person ho how clean you want your meat from fat and ligament but like on this one a beautiful steak I take away some of the ligaments and because I have a dog it doesn't go to rest hunting dog Vitra enjoys the moose meat just as much as frederick compared to the red deer or longer for example it's it's milder it's easy to cook hard to go wrong not too soft not too hard after Frederick has briefly fried the meat he put it in the oven where it will cook for two hours meter against the leftovers of course mixed with dog food [Music] [Music] Frederick and his wife Nina each gain out of conviction he himself has shot this evenings mousse you give them a lot of respect all the way from the beginning till the end moose meat that you get here in Sweden and Finland it's probably the purest meat you can get in the world if you go buy some meat in the store you don't know what you will get it even if it says where it comes from but how have these animals been treated what have they been but have they fed them with all kinds of medicines and stuff like that so we we barely don't buy any meat at all the Swedish way of animal welfare it's only over the number of moose that the Swedes disagree among themselves well it's not too many there's not enough old moose I don't see that the forestry should go first they say it's too many I think nature has to take the place it has to and we have to adjust so more moose is ok with me and leave some of the big ones as well Frederick's next destination is the far north up in the northern parts of the country the climate change could be observed especially well it's the land of the Sami people on Sweden's highest mountain became their Kaiser they still keep their traditions Sami a reindeer herders they live season to season alongside their livestock but more and more often these seasons are getting mixed up the reindeer are failing to find food the snow is too hard once melted on warm days it is now frozen over again [Music] vahan's sure and parts happily this is also a consequence of the climate change he has to hand feed the reindeer himself with lichens from the trees capable of take the wood like the Moose it seems a little but one day going where there are trees left all trees who have this they are living by it it's it's the nature if you help in today and very skilled no wood didn't well no wood only directly being so skilled and specialized in one area could lead to some trouble when the elements change and in the past few years spring has arrived ever earlier it's little clues such as these that moose detective Frederick is searching for below the Kebnekaise er there are more moose that he and his team have been watching for years global warming is beginning to show its effect the glaciers are melting but the moose in northern Sweden seem to be doing well so far [Music] here we see some fresh browsing from moose from this winter they have been eating a willow the best food is of course in the spring early summer when it's really sprouting you get the leaves and that's when you have got high quality food and also for the for the cows when they lactate giving milk to the to the calf's then it's very important winter food is also always of course of worst quality but now willow as a it's good for the winter it's better than birch better than pine on the birches visible bite marks could be seen and it's there that the perpetrator is revealed [Music] this far up in the north the Moose are remarkably larger than on Berlin their size protects them from the cold [Music] the more body mass they have in comparison to skin surface the better they are insulated from the cold [Music] frederik calls in the helicopter here in the north he also wants the dart moose to equip them with radio collars it is very we have two different components in these doses one part immobilizes the moose so it can't move and it is this the etorphine which is very dangerous there's always one drop left in the cannula in the needle even though it has been emptied in the moose and that one drop alone can wipe out all of us in a helicopter so there has to be a lot of safety precautions to take a hit the pilot is a military veteran with years of experience but still a slight risk remains against the snow the Moose are far more visible than on Erland in no time at all frederick has located a cow with a calf born last year [Applause] after the cow collapses it takes a moment for her companions to leave they will gather again afterwards this is the moment Frederic has been waiting for we are at the northern border of the Moose's geographic range that makes it interesting here we can study the effects of the climate change to spare the cow from a traumatic experience Frederic covers her eyes an oxygen pipe helps with the breathing then the examination begins with a blood sample she's pressing against my knee moose are so heavy that is a problem if they are lying in the wrong position that once the head up higher than the body so that no stomach fluid travels upwards and we need access from the right side but to move a cow of more than 500 kilo in the deep snow is almost impossible also there's absolutely no comfortable posture in this task Frederic will no doubt end up with a backache but in the end it's all for the good of the moose one last check and the cow gets her antidote within a few minutes she's up on her feet again the anesthesia didn't harm her Frederick is satisfied the cow will continue to provide the team with data from an almost empty wilderness on the 2000 meter high Capener Keizer the next morning brings a change in weather the wind is getting higher from the West a snowstorm is approaching whether the helicopter can fly in this weather is uncertain [Music] today is a challenge with the weather but you have to expect that mountain weather can change anytime yesterday we had beautiful sunshine almost no wind we could fly in on the moves from more or less any direction today we have average winds of more than 20 meters per second these are very rough conditions let's see how it goes we might have to cancel but we'll give it a try but despite the weather Frederic manages to dart a moose it's really difficult difficult to land and now it's cold the journals are flying about hands are freezing Snow's everywhere and it hurts not being able to wear gloves at minus 20 degrees Celsius the Moose cow is well protected against the cold in fact she encounters difficulties if it's too warm up here north of the Polar Circle she's in her element two months later in May spring has sprung on the island of Everland the first moose calves are born shortly after the birth the mother licks the calf clean on the limestone plateau of the store at al forat orchids blossom along with common cowslips only a few remaining species thrive on the barren ground it's unusual vegetation that manages with limited soil [Music] just a thin layer of plant scum of the limestone below in the quarry's farmers once extracted building material for houses and the traditional walls of the lat this special vegetation is a challenge for the Moose Frederick is looking for suitable forage plants and discovers more bite marks it's really amazing to find a moose here because the vegetation is dominated for sure by by juniper bushes and lumps - you can imagine it's not pretty good food for for the female mooses giving birth right now this means very limited food for her lands moose the large deer are highly specialized they don't graze but browse leaves and shoots from trees and bushes being ruminants they extract every last drop of energy from the greens using their four stomachs [Music] on the al forat Fredrik is waiting for the GPS position of a cow her movement pattern has brought in here I have no idea what will happen we were going to a female that has lost her cops two years in a row dead Earl or deadly bones that's why we now take the rifles with us because if the cops are dead if you so long we will try to immobilize her and take some samples but if the cars are with her their lives we will focus on the cops see if we can weigh them instead a local Ken Nealson is trying to get a bearing of the cows radio transmitter she's less than 500 meters away the Moose cow won't move unless she has to her low activity is what led Frederick to realize that she had given birth [Music] well it is not easy and especially here on Ireland you can see their surroundings it's where it ends juniper bushes the vegetation is in some places you can't even get through it both has man heightens new height so it's very tricky [Music] she swear oh well equipped she has to the big advantage very good hearing big nose so you always have to work against the wind did you see her I saw something against that pine if that is the calf in the bush she could be lying somewhere close by so towards the withered tree do you see it the cow is less than 20 meters away but in the thick bushes she makes her escape her calf is left behind longing for its mother the calf cries out it's only a day old and still completely helpless Frederick and Kent have to hurry they don't want to examine the car for any longer than two minutes the young gives the impression of being strong and healthy there's no sign of malnutrition yet but that could change in the coming days what's where successful now we found alive on decent weight 10.9 better to find a live one than a dead one before and with some luck this calf might be one of those that survived wildlife has always played an important role on Berlant since the mid 1700s a wall separates the southern tip from the rest of the island it was built to keep the game inside the Kings hunting grounds today it's still home to the kings fallow deer for the Moose the fallows are no competition for food they are grazers [Music] state veterinarian yonas is visiting the former gamekeeper Johann if it's in the wintertime stay mixing really good together because it's no other people who disturbs the Moose because they are wild animals and goes together fairly good but there's another deer species that the moose have to share their food with and that might be critical with the ongoing scarcity of food around the time of birth your Nass is worried between the moose and the fallow deer there shouldn't be any competition but the roe deer is a browser and so is the moose although there are of different sizes they still tend to compete in if there are moose in high numbers roe deer and high numbers and also the availability of food is a bit limited which could be mean that the moose and in some ways may may fall out on that but they've always been roe deer on Erland why would the moose now have problems coping alongside their smaller relatives [Music] yonas has an idea [Music] redfox almost disappeared from ireland in the beginning of the millennium in 2004 the disease the parasitic disease sarcoptic mange affected the foxes on the island so they they died out almost and the folks being the largest for the most important predator on roe deer the roe deer were set free in a way because they had no enemies besides the hunting the population grew in an explosive speed to reduce the number of roe deer hunters could allow the foxes to roam freely but not everybody is in favor of this idea [Music] farmer Johan is letting out his lambs into the pasture for the first time this year [Music] outside of the stables the youngsters are completely at the mercy of any predator [Music] it's always in danger when Fox is around because right now and lamps is out folks need lots of food for the puppies and if your folks have four or five puppies then one lamb is not enough and if it starts to kill it continue killing two you take the folks that I have a gun and if I see if all suits and then folks [Music] many of the farmers would agree with yoga they want to protect their livestock but Johan has a bigger agenda his pastures are home to many meadow and wading birds it's more good for the environment we get special birds back who live in there by the waters and those who can't defend themselves for something and it's the population of these birds is going down really much it seems absurd the protection of endangered birds ultimately seems to cause a lack of food for the Moose for perhaps there is a connection on the island of Berlin these connections arise more clearly than on the mainland out here the animals simply can't escape so there are two leads that the Moose detective and his team have to follow who is the culprit the scarcity of food or the climate change some evidence is still missing your nask leads the search for more columns it's quite painful these thorns and shrubs and bushes they really tend to rip you apart especially in this type of environment you tend to attract a lot of ticks so you have to get rid of them too when you arrive at home at night but it's very it's hard and it it wears you down a little bit we have to get there but quietly many obstacles stand in the way if just one stone from the wall starts to roll the noise would travel through the whole forest we have to be really really careful because the wind lights shifting a bit and if we break the little twig she will know right away and then we may not be sure where exactly she is so we will fail to find our locations so we have to be really really really careful the last last 25 40 meters finally the cow makes a dash through the woods and your nasan can't have to hurry to catch the carp in time to their great joy there are actually two cars [Music] a feeling awesome as a pair of twins she seems to be a good mother back in Assam they were just lying here in their carving place and they were born yesterday your we have marked and weighed them and now we'll release them and head out quickly gasps gasps snap tie for non stance they leave swiftly as the little ones would certainly try to follow them the carves quickly assign and accept new foster parents at solid Impala's the summer residence of the royal family on Erland there are signs of festivities it's the 14th of July the birthday of Crown Princess Victoria many Swedes want to congratulate her yo had to his present a smorgasbord I've been working for years the same as I do and the rest of the people on Ellen is so fairly important today for this because it's a traditional one and traditions to be kept and Victoria brings the whole family along including her father King Carl Gustav so we celebrate the crown princess on her festive day with a little jingle singer [Music] the Crown Princess hip-hip-hooray a thousand things I'd like to welcome you all to sullied and on this day now that stopped raining it's very touching that so many of you have come out despite the weather and then it's time for the presence Her Royal Highness spends two hours shaking hands finally its gamekeeper Johannes turn you can choose the Cheese yourself I can choose the cheese myself but how wonderful how nice you make them yourself now a friend of mine send my regards they are so lovely very talented a warm thank you let's see I can't walk around with them it feels a bit heavy of the world oh yes daughter Estelle is less interested in the presence and more into the brass band music [Music] it's a very festive day of the Kings Island of Erland [Music] out in the small reserves on the limestone plateau Stora Alvarez nature is left to take care of itself moose detective Frederick has discovered another movement pattern of a cow that looks like she's given birth but the chances of sneaking up on her a slim the open field doesn't provide much cover qui will sneak over to the next juniper bush and then to the Stonewall they should be on the other side this time they only find a dead calf sad and our line of work you know it will happen especially around Iran but it's sad this is there was a really nice female one of the biggest ones we marked here on they don't first we actually talks in February when we heard at the war right away they start their forensic work [Music] still not dry and Eunice discovers another clue you can see here on the under on the feet that the there's like a thin membrane that's wears off when the calf has been up walking so this calf was born alive and then died within a day no you can so let's weigh it [Music] [Music] tsylia exactly ten kilos the cause of death is not visible at first sight when we're opening this calf we will probably see that it hasn't fed and that it hasn't been stimulated in the back and some observations that are made is that the cow will not allow it to see results will later confirm that neglected by its mother the calf starved to death within hours of birth Berlin Stora Alvarez is evidently not the best habitat for moose there is simply not enough food and slight environmental changes have a big impact however some caring moose mothers do manage to raise their calves despite the conditions so what about the future most detected frederick and his colleagues have identified two crucial factors that might be responsible for the calves early deaths of course if it's competition with with harder animals rollers and there's a lot of rollers here you can manage the population in different ways if it's something to do with vegetation that's you don't go and climate change the vegetation much change so you don't think I know where we're going in in the future moose on our lands may only be able to survive with food directly administered by humans and then of course the question is how much do you really want to interfere with while I should this just go on its own and if there is not the right food here for for the Moose well that's it you do really do supplementary feeding of course depends on how we want to manage it mankind is most likely co responsible for the situation of the moose on Burland whatever happens with these animals is in their hands now [Music] the Moose detective and his team will continue to collect evidence to finally solve a completely the mystery of Buland [Music]

Channel: Free Documentary - Nature

Views: 236,532

Keywords: Free, Documentary, Documentaries, adventure, nature, nature documentary, documentary, wildlife documentary, mooses, mooses documentary, sweden animals, moose documentary, forest, forest documentary, forest animals, sweden wildlife, sweden forest, Free Documentary Nature, Moose Giants of Sweden's Forests, Moose, Wildlife, Wildlife Documentary, Elk, Elk Documentary, European Moose, European Elk, Sweden Moose, Swedish Animals, Scandinavia, Scandinavia Wildlife, Norwegian Wood

Id: mnHLOl5TC1Q

Length: 52min 14sec (3134 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 19 2019