It’s a battle that has garnered international attention — and one that could be coming to an end.
For weeks, Moose Jaw has been locking antlers with a town in Norway in a fight to reclaim the title of world’s tallest moose.
Linda Otnes Henriksen is deputy mayor of the Norwegian town, Stor-Elvdal, where Storelgen, the world’s current tallest moose, resides. Now, Henriksen is calling for a “moose truce” with the town of Moose Jaw.
An article published in Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet on Friday said that Henriksen had reached out to Moose Jaw Mayor Fraser Tolmie about possibly visiting the Canadian town and reaching an agreement on building up Saskatchewan’s Mac the Moose to the same height as Storelgen.
“We’d love to have her and any other Norwegian representatives come to Moose Jaw to discuss this further. They’ve made some intriguing suggestions,” Tolmie said.
Moose Jaw’s Mac the Moose stands 32 feet tall, while Norway’s Storelgen stands 33 feet tall.
“Norway purposely built their moose bigger than Mac in 2015 so we need to acknowledge that and also respect the businesses and others from around the world that have donated money to make Mac the world’s tallest moose again,” Tolmie said.
“We don’t want to deal in bad faith. Having said that, Linda and the folks from Norway have made this such a fun competition, and they are clearly very nice people.”
There is no word on when Moose Jaw will be expecting Henriksen’s visit.
The epic battle was sparked by the hosts of YouTube’s the Justin & Greg Show, who pointed out that Mac was dethroned by a mere 30 centimetres by the moose statue located north of Oslo, Norway.
Canada’s Moosehead Breweries recently donated $25,000 towards the Mac the Moose fund run by the City of Moose Jaw and Tourism Moose Jaw.
A GoFundMe page has also raised over $12,000.