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Is it an elk? Is it a moose? If you’re in Sweden, the answer is “BOTH”! The iconic, majestic forest dweller Alces alces is known as a moose in North America (actually the sub-species Alces alces americana) and an elk in Europe. The word elk, like the Swedish word älg (pronounced /elj/), is taken from the Latin alces. To make matters even more confusing, elk in North America is used for an entirely different animal - a kind of deer, Cervus elaphus, otherwise known as a Wapiti, which looks like this:

The European elk (or moose), on the other hand, looks like this:

Elk are widely distributed throughout Sweden, from the giants inhabiting the wilderness of the mighty Sarek National Park in Lapland (hunting restrictions have meant that large bulls have been better able to survive and reproduce) down to the lower regions of this vast country, but the forests of Bergslagen are a particularly wonderful area to see elk in Sweden. As home to the traditional royal hunting grounds, hunting pressure on the elk in this area is lower than in some other parts of Sweden, and as a result the elk population far outnumbers the human population!

Elk may be fairly common and widespread in Sweden, but that doesn’t mean they are easy to see, especially at close range. Elk are shy creatures, and will retreat into the cover of the deep forest at the slightest disturbance, loping off with a slow-motion gait that uncannily resembles a giraffe running on the savannah. While it is not unusual for a commuter returning from a day’s work in Stockholm to see an elk standing motionless on the edge of a field in the setting sun, similarly a hunter may wait a week in a hide in the woods and not see a single elk!

During a recent visit to Sweden, the Nature Travels team had the opportunity to take part in an evening elk safari with local elk expert Marcus, who has been running elk safaris in the Bergslagen area for a number of years now and has never once returned home without a sighting. Hundreds of nights spent patrolling the forests, hills and dirt tracks of Bergslagen have given him an in-depth knowledge of the best places to find these beautiful animals, and all elk safaris now come with an “elk guarantee” – though Marcus says he still worries that one night they might all be hiding!

Due to time pressure we took the “express” version of the elk safari – a whistle-stop tour of some of the best local elk-watching spots – but nevertheless managed to see 9 elk in just over 30 minutes, including some wonderful close-up views of mother and calf and a large male with full antlers. The full safari takes a number of hours, and combines an exploration of the local forests on foot with observation from the minibus (as in Africa, vehicles can sometimes be less threatening to wild animals than a human presence on foot). Typically in recent tours it has been possible recently to see at least 30 animals in one evening, including some very close encounters indeed. The trick to getting close, says Marcus, is to crouch down in the grass until the elk bends its head to graze, then creep slowly forward. As the animal looks up, crouch down again and remain still, then creep forward again as it returns to graze. After a few minutes of patience and quiet, you can get closer than you would believe possible!

Elk safaris are available between May and September and include an atmospheric night in an authentic charcoaler hut! For further details see our Elk Safari Adventure.

As well as being home to thousands of elk, two of Sweden’s most exciting, most threatened, and most controversial predators roam the vast forests of Bergslagen – the wolf and the lynx. Reconciling the interests and opinions of conservationists, farmers, hunters, local people and politicians is never an easy task, and the presence of large predators in Sweden has always been a sensitive issue. But Sweden is tackling this question with typical foresight, compassion and practical skill. The research station at Grimsö, deep in the Bergslagen forests, works with radio tracking on local predator populations in an attempt to learn more about their movements and behaviour and develop management plans for their conservation and future survival, while at the same time working hard to maintain the trust and goodwill of those who may feel less than positive about the presence of wolves and lynx in the area. A recent initiative has been the introduction of special fencing, similar to an electric fence but with strands much closer to the ground, which has proved extremely effective in reducing livestock deaths due to lynx and wolves.

Photo: Andrea Barghi

Having grown from just two individuals, the Swedish wolf population is in something of a genetic crisis. It is estimated that to keep the population genetically viable, new blood needs to be introduced at least every 15 years or so. Recently, there was great excitement when a new wolf appeared in the Dalarna area. Analysis of dung has identified this wolf as being part of the Finnish-Russian population, and it represents the first new blood for the local wolf population since the 1980s. Worryingly, there has been some conflict between this animal and local livestock populations, and its future remains uncertain, but with luck the animal may be able to breed with local wolves and provide a much-needed boost to the gene pool of the Swedish wolf population.

Since 2006, Marcus has been working together with the researchers at Grimsö to offer evenings of wolf tracking and wolf howling. To find out more about this spine-tingling adventure, see our Howling with Wolves experience.

Bergslagen is a fascinating area for wildlife watching, and the images of elk frozen in the torchlight are still fresh in our memories – we’ll make sure we plan a little more time for elk watching on our next visit!

Best regards

The Nature Travels Team

The Rovdjursföreningen (The Predator Society) in Sweden works for the interests of all large predators in Sweden: the brown bear, the wolf, the lynx, the wolverine, and, of course, humans, with a very informative website that is unfortunately only currently available in Swedish. However, for non-Swedish speakers they also have a wonderful collection of images – see http://www.de5stora.se/galleri/galleriDe5/ and click on “Öppna galleriet”. In the UK, Tooth and Claw operate on similar principles – see http://www.toothandclaw.org.uk/.

If you find yourself in northern Sweden during the winter months, there is a very good chance you will step out on a cold, clear night and witness one of nature’s most spectacular and ethereal displays – the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights – a sight that many consider to be the most beautiful thing they have ever seen.

The term is a combination of Aurora, the Roman goddess of the dawn, and Borealis, from the Greek word for North Wind. As the name suggests, the Aurora Borealis is only visible in the northern hemisphere – the southern hemisphere has its own version, the Aurora Australis.

What causes the Northern Lights?

It may look like magic, but there is some relatively simple science behind this unique phenomenon. Charged particles in the Earth’s magnetosphere called ions collide with atoms in the upper atmosphere. Energy from the collisions is emitted as light, which due to the dominance of atomic oxygen tends to be a greenish or dark-red colour. These colours persist for a relatively long period, while the blues and purples caused by molecular nitrogen vary much more quickly.

What does a display look like?

An instance of the aurora may look like a soft, diffuse glow in the nighttime sky or like multi-coloured “curtains” running east to west, each made up of parallel rays aligned with the lines of the Earth’s magnetic field. You may even see a kind of corona of diverging rays if a magnetic line runs directly overhead.

How often do the Northern Lights occur in Sweden?

Auroras occur more frequently near the poles, since the particles needed for the displays are attracted by the Earth’s magnetic field. Displays do in fact occur year-round, but it is in the deep darkness of the northern winter nights that they can be seen most easily and are at their most spectacular. Calm conditions are best, and the most intense part of a display will last between 10 and 30 minutes. In Sweden the most active auroras tend to occur before midnight, and during peak activity displays occur on average every other clear night, perhaps even more frequently.

What cultural significance does the Aurora Borealis have in Sweden?

The scientific explanation is of course not the only one, and certainly not the most colourful. Such an other-worldly display has clearly had a profound effect on the culture and folklore of Scandinavia. An old Swedish name for the lights, “sillblixt”, translates as “herring flash”, and it was thought that the display was created by the reflections of huge shoals of herring swimming in the oceans. The Finnish word, “revontulet”, means “fox fires”, and comes from the ancient belief that Lapland was home to fire foxes, whose fur emitted sparks and caused the aurora.

One tale from the Nordic region describes the aurora as light from the fires surrounding the Earth’s oceans reflected in the sky (when the Earth was believed flat and itself surrounded by water). Another says that the sun could throw its rays above the horizon even after sunset, while a third attributed the display to powerful light energy absorbed by glaciers.

The Sami people, the indigenous people of Lapland, believe that when “observed” by the lights, you should be quiet and respectful. In particular, to make jokes or sing about the lights is to invite disaster – the lights may descend from the sky and kill the mocker. Many elderly Sami still remember that, as children, misbehaving during the aurora was very serious indeed. The lights were thought to be inhabited by the spirits of those who had died an early or violent death. Other indigenous peoples of the north, such as the Inuit in Greenland, also believed that the lights were inhabited by the dead – but that the display was caused by the spirits playing football with the skull of a walrus across the nighttime sky.

Further down, in the southern parts of Sweden far from the wild plains of Lapland, the aurora still occurs, though less frequently and usually less intensely. Here the people believed that the lights were caused by the Sami people in the north searching in the mountains for their lost reindeer herds!

How can I see the Northern Lights in Sweden?

Whatever explanation you choose to believe, there is little doubt that for many the Northern Lights are near the top of their “things to see before you die” list, and Sweden is a magnificent area to experience this beautiful sight. Swedish Lapland is a wonderful place to observe the aurora, and though a display can never of course be guaranteed, chances are good during the winter months, particularly around March and April.

Photo: Nils Torbjorn Nutti

Our Reindeer Sled Safari takes you out into the Lapland mountain wilderness for 6 days in one of the best areas in Sweden to see the Northern Lights, while Experience Lapland gives you an opportunity to try dogsledding, reindeer sledding and snowshoeing in a 4-day multi-activity adventure.

Photo: Peter Grant

Take a moment tonight to stand beneath the stars and imagine yourself wrapped in the enveloping darkness and silence of a winter night in northern Sweden. Picture the cold clear air pricking at your skin, the ground shining from horizon to horizon with reflected light from the snowfields, and all around you the sky filled with a swirling mass of spectral colour.

The skies are darkening, and winter is just around the corner…

Best regards
The Nature Travels Team

In the region of Jämtland, near the Swedish-Norwegian border, lies the nature reserve of Vålådalen, encompassing the ancient forests and wide valley of the Vålån River and the surrounding mountains. Since 1988, this 1200 km2 area has been protected as the Vålådalen Naturreservat.

With a height difference of between 500m and 1600m above sea level, a quarter of the reserve is comprised of forest, almost all of which is classified as “natural forest” or “virgin forest”. The geological and climatic variations within the reserve allow for a very wide range of flora and fauna, and the reserve is home to some of Sweden’s rarest and most spectacular animals, including the wolverine, the arctic fox and the gyrfalcon, as well as rare plant species such as orchids.

The arctic fox, Alopex lagopus, is Sweden’s most endangered mammal, and the subject of concerted conservation efforts in Sweden. The work, which includes radio tracking and supplementary feeding programmes, is now beginning to show real benefits, but the arctic fox population in Sweden remain very fragile. Arctic foxes are highly vulnerable to fluctuations in availability of food supply, and they will only breed in years with plentiful food. One of their main sources of food, the lemming, has a population cycle with periodic peaks and crashes, the reasons for which are still largely unknown. Also of major concern is the spread of the red fox into arctic fox territories, and conservation measures have also had to involve the culling of red fox populations in some areas to reduce competition.

In a good lemming year, females may give birth to 5-6 letters of 5-10 young each under the protection of the winter snows, which means that come spring the mountain heaths of Vålådalen will be alive with huge numbers of these beautiful animals. Lemmings provide an essential source of food for arctic foxes, as well as for birds of prey such as the long-tailed skua and rough-legged buzzard, and arctic fox females may give birth to up to 16 pups in a good year. Mortality rates can be high, though, and it may be a long time until the next lemming peak.

Food supply is only one challenge the local wildlife faces in the fight to survive in the Jämtland mountains. As with any mountain environment, the climate in Vålådalen can be unpredictable, with weather conditions changing often and suddenly – in Vålådalen, this is a result of the Atlantic climate zone and the continental climate zone meeting over the mountains.

Safety when you’re out in the mountains should always be a primary consideration, and this is ideal terrain for mountain skills training. Nature Travels offers two tours aimed at improving your survival/outdoor skills in a mountain environment. Mountain Magic for Beginners takes you on a camping expedition into the Jämtland mountains during the summer season, with expert instruction in navigation and mountain safety – as well as a great camping experience in wonderful surroundings, of course! The winter version of this tour, Beginner in the Snow, also gives you the opportunity to camp wild in the mountains – but this time in the depths of winter – teaching you essential skills to ensure that a winter expedition is both enjoyable and safe.

Photo: Annica & Torkel Ideström

Vålådalen in the summer is a beautiful area for a walking holiday in Sweden, and Nature Travels offers a hiking tour with a difference – in the company of your own husky sled dog! The dogs, who spend their winter providing the propulsion for our popular dogsledding holidays, also love to be out in the summertime, and our Hiking with Dog tour gives you the opportunity to explore the Jämtland mountains with your own pack dog to help with the load!

Vålådalen in winter is an excellent area to go doglsedding in Sweden. Nature Travels offers five dogsledding holidays in Sweden, all of which take place in or around the nature reserve. Our popular Dogsled Adventure in Jämtland is a week-long dogsledding tour into the beauty and silence of the winter mountains and is available from December onwards. As spring begins, the days lengthen and temperatures rise, it is also possible to spend your nights under canvas, and our Go Camping by Dogsled and Ice-fishing and Dogsledding experiences combine the excitement of a dogsledding adventure with the true wilderness feeling of spending your nights in a tent or teepee. For the winter season 2007/2008, we have also added a shorter 4-day dogsledding tour, Discover Dogsledding, as well as our Premium Dogsledding Expedition, which combines the challenges of a mountain dogsledding holiday with a few creature comforts along the way!

The Swedish mountains possess an expansive, ethereal beauty at any time of year – a place to rediscover your spirit and follow your dreams – and in Vålådalen Nature Reserve is an ideal place to explore the endless possibilities of the Swedish mountain world!

Best regards
The Nature Travels Team

Heathrow Central Bus Station is a wonderful spot for people watching. It’s late afternoon, and I’m sitting on a bench by stand number 13, watching the world go by. The air is filled with the heady aroma of diesel fumes as an endless stream of National Express buses arrive, load up and head out again, bound for such exotic destinations as Oxford, Worthing and Brighton. All around me a hundred small human dramas unfold – an elderly couple argue quietly together about their luggage, a young mother loses her patience in her struggle to control a wayward toddler, two young backpackers sit on their rucksacks holding hands ….and all to a soundtrack of the roar of jet engines, the neverending drone of London traffic and the chatter of voices in a dozen different tongues. Over the years Heathrow Central Bus Station has played a vital role in many of my travel adventures – the expectancy and anticipation of arrival, knowing you’re off somewhere new and exciting, the joy of coming home to see old friends and loved ones, and occasionally the blank exasperation of seeing your coach pull away just as you reach the stand.

Sitting there as the skies darkened and the pigeons pecked listlessly around my feet, I couldn’t help thinking that the scene stood in stark contrast to the view I’d been looking at earlier that day. Just a few hours before, shortly after breakfast, I had been sitting on a jetty on a small island. It was still quite early, and the morning mist was clearing to reveal a bright blue sky and the promise of a warm September day. A full moon still shone faintly overhead and on a neighbouring island an osprey came in to land on its nest at the top of a pine tree. A few minutes later a flock of cormorants passed over in perfect V-formation like a small black aerial display team, and behind me a field vole emerged warily from the forest undergrowth, sniffed the air for a few seconds, got startled by the flutter of a dragonfly and disappeared from view. As I watched the last of the mist evaporate in the gathering warmth, I caught a glimpse of a very large bird of prey as it flew into view from behind the trees. Another few minutes’ patient waiting and what I could now see was a Golden Eagle glided into view and circled lazily just 20 metres or so above me before heading off to the horizon to try new hunting grounds.

All around me the world was full of life – in the air and on the ground, but still all was calm and quiet. Apart from the distant tak-tak of a small outboard engine and one or two characteristic red and white summer cottages peeking out from the forests of surrounding islands, there were no signs of anyone else being around at all. Somehow it seemed as if the whole scene was being played out just for me, that the world had stopped whatever it was doing and decided to sit back and enjoy things for a while.

What made the sensation so surprising, and in a way so much more special, was that I hadn’t journeyed to a remote and undiscoverd part of the world, spending hours bumping along dusty country tracks or slashing my way through impenetrable forest to get here. This was the Stockholm archipelago, and I was on one of the 24,000 or so islands that make up this stunning marine landscape on the east cost of Sweden. Just over an hour away by boat lay one of the most beautiful capital cities in the world, home to around 800,000 people. This combination of wildness and accessibility has always, for me, been one of the great attractions of Sweden – the country offers some of the most spectacular and wildest landscapes to be found anywhere in Europe, yet the swift and efficient transport networks and the attention paid to planning and design mean you don’t need to travel for days to reach them.

My reverie was interrupted as I glanced at my watch and realised it was time to get going. Lifting our luggage into the boat, we gunned the engine and headed out across the dead calm waters. Ninety minutes later we were sitting in Arlanda airport, the sights and sounds of the archipelago still fresh in our minds. As Douglas Adams wrote in Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul, “It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, ‘as pretty as an airport.’ Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort.” But perhaps he’d never been to Arlanda. While nothing compared to the sweeping majesty of the landscape I had been in earlier that morning, Arlanda would probably do rather well in a world airport beauty contest, and is certainly a lot more attractive than Heathrow Central Bus Station….

Best regards

Bob from The Nature Travels Team

Nature Travels is the UK specialist for wildlife, outdoor and adventure holidays in Sweden. Our sea kayaking experiences take place in the beautiful and wild Trosa archipelago just to the south of Stockholm.