Orsa

This morning we head off early to the Orsa Rovdjurspark, Europe’s largest predator park. It lies at the Grönklitt ski area, about 16 km by road northwest of Orsa, and opened in 1986 as Orsa Björnpark. On the park’s 325,000 m², bears, tigers, lynxes, wolves and other animals are supposed not just to be kept in enclosures but to have plenty of space. Apparently it is quite possible for visitors not to see a single animal, since the animals have so much space and therefore plenty of places to hide.

Once there, we find yet again that we are almost the only visitors. The enclosures are really huge. According to Johan Sares, who managed the park and the Orsa Grönklitt resort in 2020, it takes four to five kilometres of walking to get all the way round. But unfortunately everything is also fenced in twice, so that no curious child’s hand goes missing… That makes it somewhat difficult to photograph the animals. Except for the wolf, we actually see every animal the park has to offer.

There is a bear hiding in this picture… Who can find it?

There are also a few bear cubs. They play together and climb up small trees. According to Skansen, bear cubs are born in the winter den in January or February, the size of a guinea pig. When they leave the den in April or May they weigh two to four kilos, and they stay with their mother for one to two years. One of the little ones rises up behind the fence and holds its front paws up. Bears often stand up on their hind legs when they are unsure and want to see what is in front of them. It is not a threat.

This lynx still seems a little sleepy. After all, lynxes are nocturnal and it is only morning. The lynx is Sweden’s only wild cat species and mostly moves around in the forest.

There are also a few of Scandinavia’s birds of prey to see. According to SVT, the park’s enclosures include one for the eagle owl, berguv in Swedish.

This is another predator of northern Europe, the wolverine, järv in Swedish, known in German by the somewhat unflattering name Vielfrass («glutton»). According to Wolfgang Pfeifer’s etymological dictionary, the German name originally had nothing to do with eating. It goes back to the older Norwegian fjeldfross, «mountain tomcat». Hanseatic fur traders reshaped the word into «Vielfrass» in the 15th century, and only then did the stories about the animal’s gluttony grow out of the name.

The wolverine belongs to the weasel family, grows to about 80 cm long and weighs at most 32 kg. Despite these modest dimensions, it feeds on reindeer, moose and lynx, among other things. According to Skansen it is the world’s largest land-dwelling mustelid, but only a mediocre hunter. It mainly eats carrion, often the leftovers of prey killed by lynx, wolves or bears. In Sweden it lives almost only in the reindeer herding area, from Dalarna northwards.

What became of the park

About a year and a half after our visit, the park closed. On 11 January 2022 the operating company Grönklittsgruppen announced that it was giving the park up because of fewer visitors and rising costs. On 6 November 2022, after 36 years, it was open to visitors for the last time. Most of the 47 animals went to other zoos. The site is being turned into ski runs. According to SVT, two new runs were to open there in the winter of 2024/25, and buildings that once housed snow leopards and Kodiak bears are becoming warming huts and the like.

Evening at the bird-watching jetty

After this visit to the park, we go out in the evening to watch some animals in the wild. Right in front of our accommodation there is a bird-watching jetty. There we see a great many geese with their young, as well as a few special birds, among them the lapwing (“tofsvipa” in Swedish). You can recognise it by its long crest. According to the Swiss Ornithological Institute in Sempach, its German name, Kiebitz, comes from its calls. In Switzerland it is on the Red List as endangered.

Afterwards we edit some photos, and it is late by the time we get to bed. Tomorrow we continue to Sunne.