WHAT makes an elk an elk? Most people would think of four legs and gigantic antlers. But engineers at the Swedish car company Saab take a different view: their elk does not even have a head. It looks more like a bundle of spaghetti than Europe鈥檚 largest land animal.
In Sweden, half of all road accidents reported to the police involve collisions with wild animals, and 2500 of them involve elks. Between 12 and 15 people a year die as a result of such collisions. 鈥淓lks have been roaming around our forests for centuries, but they have no instinct that the car is a dangerous thing,鈥� says Olof Wallen of Saab.
The model elk is designed to have the same weight distribution as a real elk, and to behave like the beast in a crash. Saab has been using its model to test the safety of new cars by driving into it at 70 kilometres per hour. The company鈥檚 engineers have carried out 40 tests so far, and have found that the elk fares far worse than the car. While the car鈥檚 frame survives intact, the 鈥渟pine鈥� of the elk snaps.
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The model is made from 390 kilograms of electric cable, bundled around the 2.5-metre wooden spine with two-thirds of the weight concentrated at the 鈥渉ead鈥� end. Each end of the plank rests on a stand so that the head is around a metre high and the 鈥渞ear鈥� is slightly lower.
But Saab drivers should not get too blas茅 鈥� the model is just an average elk. In the far north, the real thing can grow to 600 kilograms. The crash tests also assume that the elk鈥檚 antlers will not smash through the windscreen and gore the driver.