They are dubbed the “Kings of the Forest” and are regarded by Norwegians as their national symbol.

Now, though, scientists have claimed that because of their burping and farting, the placid moose is an eco killer. During a single year, according to new research, a full-grown moose expels – from both ends – the methane equivalent of 2,100kg of carbon dioxide emissions. That is said to be as destructive for the atmosphere as the emissions released by 13,000km (8,000 miles) of car travel.

“To put it into perspective, the return flight from Oslo to Santiago in Chile leaves a carbon footprint of 880 kilos,” said the biologist Reidar Andersen, a biologist. “Shoot a moose and you have saved the equivalent of two long-haul flights.” The findings, from the technical university in Trondheim, place Scandinavians in a dilemma. Many are dedicated winter season tourists to Asian destinations such as Bali and Thailand. Is shooting moose about to become a fashionable way of easing their troubled envi-ronmental consciences? Researchers in Scotland and Wales have been examining how the feeding of dairy cows could be changed to cut back their gaseous belching. No such work has been possible, however, on the 120,000 wild moose in Norway.

Already, though, climate change is alleged to have so altered their eating habits that they are involved in an en-vironmentally vicious circle of increasing gas emissions. It began when snows started to recede in Norway. “Moose normally eat branches in the winter, a not particularly nutritious diet,” said Erling Solberg, of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research. “But since snow has become so much rarer they have access to wild blueberries.”

The result has been fatter moose that are more likely to break wind. Moreover, better-fed, the moose have started to reproduce more quickly and herds are swelling.

Last winter there were reports of moose straying into towns in search of food – eating Christmas decorations and even smashing shop windows to reach displayed vegetables.

Norwegians are therefore pleading for higher hunt quotas to keep moose numbers down and the gas emissions under control. The hunting season begins on September 25 and the authorities have allowed a kill-quota of 35,000.

“Think of it this way,” said Professor Andersen, who hunts moose as well as researching them. “Remove a moose from the world and you have saved the equivalent of 36 flights between Oslo and Trondheim.”

The Kyoto protocol counts a tonne of expelled methane as the equivalent of 21 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

80 million metric tons of methane produced annually by ruminant livestock worldwide

Source: EPA

Times Recommends

• Thalidomide is story of pain and neglect
• Mum’n’dad vote will decide the next election
• Socialite wife in a class of her own