A Norwegian man hunting above the Arctic Circle killed two moose before realizing they were in a zoo, CNN reported Monday.
"We can't explain what happened, but probably the hunter must have been so eager that he didn't think," Polar Park Arctic Wildlife Center CEO Heinz Strathmann told CNN.
The man was part of a group hunting moose near the boundary of Norway's Polar Park on Oct. 7. One of the group's trained hunting dogs went under the fence, CNN writes, and the hunter shot at the moose.
The shot passed through and killed one moose and lodged in the stomach of a second moose. The second moose had to be euthanized.
When Strathmann was told what had happened, he said, "I was surprised. I had my mouth open for a while," he told CNN. "This has never happened before -- and I don't think it will happen ever again. It is a one of a kind."
The park will not be pressing charges against the unnamed hunter, Strathmann told CNN, because the shooting was an accident. The park was asking him to recoup its costs, though, to purchase two new moose ($3,500 each) as well as pay for veterinary, autopsy and other costs associated with handling the two dead moose.
The Polar Park Arctic Wildlife Center calls itself the world's northernmost animal park. The park, above the Arctic Circle and a roughly a two-hour drive south of Tromso, Norway, is home to bears, wolves, wolverines, foxes, deer and reindeer, among other animals.