Why are millions of people watching moose in Sweden?

There's a bit of a craze sweeping across Sweden at the moment, and it's probably not what you'd expect.

No, it's not the new Minecraft movie, but... elk!

Millions of people have been tuning in to a round-the-clock livestream of elk on the move in the north of the country.

The show, called The Great Moose Migration, follows the animals as they make their annual journey toward greener, summer pastures.

Sweden's woodlands are home to about 300,000 elk.

In fact, the animal is known in the Scandinavian country as "King of the Forest".

SVT, Sweden's national public television broadcaster, started showing the animal migration in 2019, and the programme has been a huge hit with more and more people tuning in every year.

In 2024, the show drew in a record nine million viewers.

It's so popular, that some people in the country even book time off work so they don't miss the three-week broadcast.

More than 30 cameras are used to capture the elk as they move through the vast landscapes of northern Sweden.

Goran Ericsson, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and science advisor for the broadcast, said that around 95% of the elk in northern Sweden migrate every year.

They walk across woodlands and swim across rivers in order to get back to summer pastures after spending the winter in areas with warmer temperatures.

Mr Ericsson explained: "Historically, this migration has been going on since the ice age.

"During spring and summer, moose are more evenly spread out in the landscape."

This year's migration began a week ahead of schedule because of the warmer weather this April.

However, Mr Ericsson said that was nothing to worry about: "Early springs happen occasionally," he added. "We're still within the normal range of variation."

Would you tune into this programme? Let us know in the comments...