Some people say TikTok is bad for our attention, but people all over the world are watching a boring live stream from a Swedish TV channel they likely don't know. It's the Great Moose Migration.

For millennia, moose have traversed the Ångerman River every spring, migrating to a more temperate summer habitat. Since 2019, a global audience can observe this three-week event as Sweden's SVT broadcasts its livestream of the migration online, employing over 30 cameras to capture the entire, deliberately paced progression.

Most of the time, the livestream shows peaceful views of forests and rivers. If you are lucky, you might see a moose walking by. The moose doesn't know it is famous around the world. It is just a moose, walking slowly and not worrying about anything.

Typically, the stream maintains a near-total silence. Occasionally, however, the stillness is punctuated by the sudden gusting of wind or the melodic chirping of birds. It's a pleasant experience, even if one inadvertently leaves the livestream tab open on their computer and is startled by a sudden burst of sound from creatures situated thousands of miles distant.

As a Swedish student told the Associated Press: "I feel relaxed, but at the same time I'm worried about seeing a moose, which means I can't go to the toilet."

The live stream persists unabated, even through the night.

Defying the absence of sunlight, night vision cameras ensure comprehensive visibility of all moose activity.

However, the stark monochromatic imagery evokes 'The Blair Witch Project' rather than a National Geographic documentary.

Nevertheless, a spectral moose encounter remains, fundamentally, a moose encounter.

The SVT's moose live stream attracted a remarkable 9 million viewers last year, a figure that stands impressively against the Discovery Channel's Shark Week, which garnered over 22 million viewers in 2023, particularly considering SVT's minimalist approach of broadcasting raw nature feeds with a team of merely fifteen individuals.

What makes these livestreams so interesting is how different they are from what we usually see online. On TikTok, you see short videos made just for you, which makes them hard to stop watching. YouTubers carefully edit their videos to keep you watching for a long time. But livestreams are often not planned and can be very long.

However, the moose seek nothing from us; they remain unaware of our presence, even as we silently encourage them.