The famous eel from Hallingdal has died

– She was quite sick, thin and apathetic.

Monday 29 April at 14:01

That’s what Torkil Dokk, field adviser in Hol municipality, tells Hallingdølen.

The rare elk with white and gray fur graced the country’s front pages after the first pictures appeared – including VG of course!

Watch video of the national celebrity:

The moose was a heifer of about one and a half years.

Torkil Dokk tells Hallingdølen that he moved out to the west side of the Hovsfjord on Saturday after receiving a report that the moose had been found dead.

However, she turned out to be alive.

– I was away and could touch her. She lay completely still, says Dokk and adds that it was quickly decided to euthanize the emaciated moose.

– When skinny animals die at this time of year, it is unfortunately not that unusual. After a long winter, they have used up their reserves, and grazing is still poor.

Atle Mysterud, professor of ecology at the University of Oslo, specializes in deer. He has previously told VG that the elk has a genetic defect, a so-called “piebaldPiebald is the term for an animal with a mottled pattern with unpigmented fields. The animal’s skin under the fur has no pigment in it.».

Then the moose gets a mixture of white and dark clothing. This is a form of leuksime, but not true albino, according to Mysterud.

– This is very rare. Partially white moose are relatively common in Sweden, but I have not seen exactly that color pattern here in Norway before, Mysterud told VG when the moose was observed before Christmas.