Moose in Space !

The fist Scandinavian in space, Christer Fuglesang (Norwegian father, Swedish mother), took some local food along on his trip to the International Space Station (ISS). Mr. Fuglesang served dried moose meat to his fellow astronauts, who reportedly were happy with the taste of real Scandinavian wildlife food. If the taste is conceived as different in weightless condition compared to more normal circumstances is unknown.


Mr. Fuglesang in space (eating moose-meat?)

Fuglesang was part of a crew that travelled to the ISS on NASA’s Discovery space shuttle in early December 2006, to do repairs on the station and conduct research experiments.

His surname Fuglesang means bird song in Norwegian.

Links:

NASA Biography

ESA Biography

Norwegian Fjords

Norway has the highest concentration of fjords in the world – and nowhere on earth are there more (and more beautiful fjords) than in Western Norway. For this reason, the region is commonly referred to as “Fjord Norway”.



Here is a list of the longest fjords in Norway:

Sognefjorden (Solund–Skjolden) 204Km
Hardangerfjorden (Bømlo–Odda) 179Km
Trondheimsfjorden (Agdenes–Steinkjer) 126Km
Porsangerfjorden (Sværholtklubben–Brennelv) 123Km
Storfjorden (Hareidlandet–Geiranger) 110Km
Nordfjord (Husevågøy–Loen) 106Km
Oslofjorden (Færder–Oslo) 100Km

UNESCO has included the fjords of Norway, exemplified by two of them, on its renowned World Heritage List. The Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord now enjoy the same recognition as the Great Wall of China, the Great Pyramids of Egypt, Zambia’s Victoria Falls and the Grand Canyon in USA

The purpose of UNESCO’s World Heritage List is to draw attention to parts of humanity’s heritage that are so important, and have such outstanding universal value, that they must be preserved for future generations.

Amazingly, this is Norway’s first natural attraction on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. In addition, five cultural attractions have been found worthy: Bryggen (the old Hanseatic wharf in Bergen), the 12th century Urnes stave church, the petroglyphs at Alta and the old mining town of Røros – and last year the Vegan Archipelago was added. The first two are located in Fjord Norway, the western part of the country.



About 10,000 years ago the Scandinavian land mass started to rise up as enormous glacial ice started to melt. The lower parts of the valleys became flooded, and so created what we today know as the fjords. The valley was originally not only made through glacial erosion but by the high pressure melting water which pushed its way beneath the ice.

The Nærøyfjord is perhaps the most spectacular arm of the Sognefjord and the narrowest fjord in the world, at one point only 250 metres with mountains towering 1800 m above its tranquil waters. The Geirangerfjord, farther north, is known for its pristine beauty and magnificent waterfalls. Fittingly, UNESCO finds not just these bodies of seawater, but the entire landscapes, worthy of preservation. Peering down onto the fjords from fertile mountain ledges there are farms, some of them still in use.


Some links:

Panoramic Images of Norwegian Fjords

Fjords in Flickr

And in YouTube

Norwegian Elkhound - the Moose Dog

The Norwegian Elkhound is the national dog of Norway, and is used to hunt large game, such as wolf, bear and moose. The meaning of the direct translation of the Norwegian name "Elghund", means Moose Dog, and the term Elkhound is actually a mistranslation because it does not hunt like a hound dog (as of American terms), but it's goal is to hold the moose at bay while the hunters go into position to shoot it.



The dog is of ancient origin, and has been actively used in hunting since the beginning of the stone-age. The Elkhounds are very loyal to its masters, and has a very loud bark that also makes it suitable as a guard-dog. As they are bred for hunting, they have a very strong drive and are particularly good tracking dogs.

Norwegian Elkhound has a thick coat which makes it very suitable for the cold climate in Scandinavia and keep them warm in very low temperatures.

Wildlife and hiking opportunities in Norway.

Norway can offer perhaps the most accessible but yet untouched nature in Europe with all its wildlife and national parks. In this country you will encounter raw landscapes raging from high mountain peaks, deep fjords and endless forests. And who knows, perhaps you will be so lucky to see a moose?!


Traditional Norwegian house structure

But everyone say it's so expensive ! Well, it all depends on what your requirements are. You will probably not need any alcohol (or at least a limited amount) if you are going hiking in the mountains, so no need to stand in queue in the extremely expensive state alcohol shop "Vinmonopolet". Then, what is left is paying for food, accommodation and transportation.


Accommodation: Hotel-prices more or less the same as the rest of Western-Europe, and you can do some great savings doing advance booking on the internet. Then you have the possibility to go camping, which is a great alternative if you do not mind skipping the shower for some days. Yet, the alternative that I would recommend is to sign up with the Norwegian Trekking Association (DNT) which owns a big amount of cabins of all sizes scattered around all over Norway with fairly comfortable standards. DNT has more than 210,000 members, most in Norway, but one in ten abroad.

Food: Restaurants are definitely expensive compared to European standards, but still it's possible to have a good dinner starting at around 15EUR. Supermarket-prices are very much similar to the rest of Europe, only meat and milk products being a bit more expensive.


Transportation: With key airports and cities basically in every corner, it's not difficult to get around at all. Prices for flights are very competitive, and the regional domestic routes are even below many other comparable European routes. Train can be slow, and if you rent a car keep in mind the nature of Norway consists of mostly mountains and valleys so the driving-conditions might be a bit different from what you are used to. Public transportation can be a fun way to explore the native culture, but requires a bit more time and patience and you get less flexibility than renting a car (or bringing your own).

Solitary Animals

Feel like going on a moose-safari? The moose is the the largest deer living a solitary life browsing in the northern forests. So if you are so lucky to see a real moose, you are more than likely to see a single one. Unless you encounter it during the mating season or a mother with her calf of course. The strongest bond between moose is that of a mother to her calf. Though solitary, moose populations tend to follow the same migratory trends. During breeding season, moose congregate together as they look for a mate.




Occasionally, during deep winter, small herds will form and help pack down the snow so they can move around. Male moose, bulls, compete for females in elaborate shoving matches. Occasionally fatal wounds are received. In general, moose are not aggressive towards people. However, female moose are very protective of their calves and will charge if you get to close. Also, moose in general are very predictable and, while they usually do not charge humans, there is not guarantee that a moose will not.

Trysil - biggest moose area in Norway

Besides being the place where the worlds first ski competition was held in 1855 Trysil has Norway's biggest ski-resort Trysilfjellet.



Coat of Arms of Trysil - two ski poles.

The moose density is among the biggest in Scandinavia, and during the hunting season more than 1000 moose are killed. Farming and lumbering are traditionally the most important occupations in the municipality, and there are many wood related industries. The Trysilelva river was the last river in Norway with traditional timber floating. There is extensive wildlife, including brown bear.

During the second world-war, the King and government was located in Trysil for a short while and were bombed by the advancing German forces in the village of Nybergsund in Trysil. This was also the location where King Haakon gave his firm and famous NO against collaborating with the Nazis. A stone monument was erected at the site of the bombing (see picture below).

Moose Traffic Signs

Moose can be extremely dangerous for car-drivers during the dark winter-season in the northern hemisphere. Icy roads and very limited daylight is a dangerous combination especially in periods with heavy snowfall when the animals need to look for food more desperately often close to roads and urban areas.

You can see examples of Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish moose signs in a previous post. Here are the moose signs for the US and Canada:


Moose warning Canada



Moose sign USA

Want to vote for the best moose sign ?

Shoot the albino moose ? Turmoil in Norway

When an albino moose turned up in the county of Østfold south-east in Norway, it got massive attention from national newspapers and television and sparked a debate whether it was right to shoot it straight away in the upcoming hunting-season, or if it should somehow be protected.


Photo from local Kirsten Foss Hansen

"It is surely entertaining to have an albino moose wandering in the woods but in purely breeding terms it is not right to let it live," Morten Brommdal, manager of the animal section at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Oslo told Moss Avis.

It didn't take long before also the international press started writing about the story. The German magazine Spiegel as well as Spanish and British newspapers picked up on the story.

Jon Arnemo, professor at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science (NVH), agreed that the albino moose was a rarity, though not a sensation. These animals are rarely very old. Their lack of pigmentation makes them more exposed to predators like wolves and they often have inferior sight or hearing.

So what happened actually with the albino moose ? Well, there were no official ban on shooting it during the annual hunting-season, and several hunters reported to have the moose in sight, but everyone seemed to follow their heart and let him go.... so out of the 450,000 strong moose-population in Scandinavia we probably still have a white-furred moose walking around in our woods.

Abercrombie & Fitch Moose

The casual luxury clothes retailer Abercrombie & Finch brand name displays a moose, not known if of North-American, Scandinavian or Russian origin, but as a big fan of Norwegian Moose we will of course draw our own conclusions.

Founded in 1892, the company was for many decades mainly an elite excursion goods retailer. After many years of success, the company struggled financially from the late 1960s until it was purchased by The Limited in 1988 and repositioned as a lifestyle brand.

The company's clothing has also been the subject of criticism. In 2002, controversy erupted over shirts featuring caricatures of Asians and other ethnic groups. One shirt featured the slogan "Wong Brothers Laundry Service—Two Wongs Can Make It White" with smiling figures in conical hats, a 1900s popular-culture depiction of Chinese immigrants. The company discontinued the designs and apologized after a boycott by Asian-American student groups, such as Stanford.[13] That same year, the children's clothing division removed a line of thong underwear sold for girls in pre-teen children's sizes after parents mounted nationwide storefront protests. The underwear included

More T-shirt controversy occurred twice in 2004. The first incident involved a shirt featuring the phrase, "It's All Relative in West Virginia," an apparent jab at incest relations in rural America. West Virginia governor Bob Wise spoke out against the company for depicting "an unfounded, negative stereotype of West Virginia," but the shirts were not removed.

The second incident involved another t-shirt with the phrase "L is for Loser" written next to a picture of a male gymnast on the rings (the same shirt was worn by Tyson Ritter of The All-American Rejects in the music video for "Move Along."). The company stopped selling the shirt in October of 2004 after USA Gymnastics president Bob Colarossi announced a boycott of Abercrombie & Fitch for mocking the sport.

In November 2005, the Women & Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania launched a "girl-cott" of the store for selling T-shirts bearing phrases like "Who needs brains when you have these?" in reference to large breasts and dumb blondes. The campaign went national on NBC's The Today Show, and the company pulled the shirts from stores on November 5, 2005.

Bob Jones University and its affiliated precollegiate schools — Bob Jones Academy, Bob Jones Junior High School, and Bob Jones Elementary School — forbade Abercrombie & Fitch clothing from being "worn, carried, or displayed" on its campuses because of "an unusual degree of antagonism to the name of Christ and an unusual display of wickedness" in the company's advertising.

We in NorwegianMoose.Com suggest to focus more on the Moose-brand as this obviously is the best way by far to give a positive perception of a brand :-)

Ahh, and they actually have pretty nice clothes. Here is their site:

http://www.abercrombie.com/

Moose collisions

A moose's body structure, with a large heavy body suspended on long spindly legs, makes these animals particularly dangerous when hit by motor vehicles. Such collisions are often fatal for both the moose and motorist.

Norwegian moose warning traffic sign.

All the accidents have led to the development of a vehicle test in Scandinavia referred to as the "moose test" (Älgtest). In an advertising campaign the Swedish car manufacturers Volvo and Saab warned people of buying Japanese cars by stating "There are no moose in Japan." Generally, upon impact the bumper of the car will break the moose's legs. The main body of the moose will then collide with the windshield, often with disastrous effect to both motorist and animal. In a collision of this nature, a car's airbags may not deploy or be of much use if they do.

Swedish Moose Warning Traffic Sign









Finnish moose warning traffic-sign.

Moose Hunting in Norway

Moose hunting in Froland, Norway in the 1960s.

Most moose felled in Hedmark

21 per cent of all moose shot in Norway in the autumn 2006 were felled in the county of Hedmark. Regarding the number of hunting licenses and number of animals felled, Hedmark is the largest "moose county". 7 962 hunting licenses were issued, and 7 284 animals were felled, resulting in a felling ratio of 91. In the counties of Nord-Trøndelag and Telemark 5 039 and 3 025 moose were felled respectively.

Moose History

The picture above shows stoneage Petroglyphs from Møllerstufossen i Oppland in Norway.

The first written description of the elk is in Julius Cæsar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, where it is described thus:

"There are also animals which are called alces. The shape of these, and the varied color of their skins, is much like roes, but in size they surpass them a little and are without horns, and have legs without joints and ligatures; nor do they lie down for the purpose of rest, nor, if they have been thrown down by any accident, can they raise or lift themselves up. Trees serve as beds to them; they lean themselves against them, and thus reclining only slightly, they take their rest; when the huntsmen have discovered from the footsteps of these animals whither they are accustomed to betake themselves, they either undermine all the trees at the roots, or cut into them so far that the upper part of the trees may appear to be left standing. When they have leant upon them, according to their habit, they knock down by their weight the unsupported trees, and fall down themselves along with them."