Moose rescued from the ice

SEE THE VIDEO: Life isn’t always easy for the Norwegian moose, especially young moose. This week, a calf wandered out onto a frozen lake southeast of Trondheim, Selbusjøen, and promptly ran into trouble. Just like in the classic Walt Disney cartoon about Bambi, the baby deer, this (relatively) little moose simply couldn’t stand up. But [...]

Grazing moose take over from cattle

The mighty moose, known as elg in Norwegian, have become so dominant in the forests of Norway that they’ve taken over cattle’s role as the most influential grazing animals. That’s causing major vegetation changes in the uncultivated areas called utmark, according to local researchers. For the past five decades, researchers from the Norwegian Institute for [...]

Fewer wolves in Norway, more in Sweden

It’s not easy being a wolf in Norway. While the Scandinavian wolf population has risen, the number of wolves in Norway has declined, probably because of illegal hunting and anti-predator politics. The Scandinavian wolf population, including those in both Norway and Sweden, rose from between 252 and 291 in the winter of 2010 to between [...]

Moose warnings go unheeded

Hardly a week has gone by this autumn without reports of serious collisions between vehicles and moose in Norway. A new study indicates motorists aren’t taking posted warnings about moose on the roads seriously. Several of the accidents in recent weeks have been serious indeed, with one collision tearing off the entire roof of a [...]

Horse breeds under threat

Norwegian horse breeds including the blonde horses known as the fjording are under threat, claims a local researcher, because there’s simply not enough of them. Hanne Gjerdingby Olsen of Norway’s main agricultural school now known as the University of Life Sciences in Ås (Universitetet for miljø- og biovitenskap, UMB, in Norwegian), says changes in the development [...]

Dane shot famed albino moose

Moose lovers were mourning the highly publicized loss this week of Norway’s near-legendary albino moose, killed by a Danish hunter who reportedly has few regrets. The moose wandered into his hunting area southeast of Oslo and he simply pulled the trigger. Most Norwegian newspapers carried stories on Thursday about the hunting incident near Spydeberg, Østfold [...]

Rabies alarm on Svalbard

UPDATED: Local authorities on Norway’s Arctic archipelago of Svalbard are trying to stem what they fear may be an outbreak of rabies, after the disease was found in a fox and two reindeer in Longyearbyen. The fox had been killed by a dog on September 12 after it had gone on the attack, reports news [...]

Moose suddenly went on attack

A moose out grazing this week on the lush vegetation of what’s normally a downhill ski run in the winter suddenly attacked a female athlete who was part of a group competing in a race up the hill. It’s become popular in recent years for Norwegians to run up steep ski runs, part of a [...]

Fur industry may win protection

UPDATED: Two of the three parties making up Norway’s left-center coalition government want to shut down the country’s fur industry after repeated examples of poor living conditions for its animals. But the third party, the small, farmer-friendly Center Party, has promised the fur farmers will be protected, indicating that the Center Party’s coalition colleagues may [...]

Deadly polar bear had a toothache

A polar bear that attacked a group of British campers on Svalbard earlier this month may have been especially aggressive because of a toothache, according to a state veterinarian who has examined the bear’s head. Bjørnar Ytrehus of Norway’s Veterinary Institute told news bureau NTB that the nerves were exposed on several of the bear’s [...]

Polar bear attack investigated

The polar bear attack on a group of British tourists on the Svalbard archipelago last Friday – which left one dead and four moderately or severely wounded – is still being investigated by local authorities, as the majority of survivors of the attack returned home over the weekend. The attack took place at a tourist [...]

Polar bear kills one on Svalbard

UPDATED: A polar bear has killed a 17-year-old British tourist and moderately or seriously injured four others who were part of a British school trip at the Von Postbreen glacier on the remote island of Spitsbergen, the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago. The bear attacked the youths, estimated to be aged between [...]

Pet-dumping a problem once again

Animal rights activists in Norway were upset again this week and chiding their fellow Norwegians for a seasonal problem that comes up every summer: Pet-dumping. Cats, dogs, and even the occasional rabbit have been found wandering aimlessly in the woods or residential neighborhoods, dumped by their owners who take off for extended summer holidays without [...]

Bear scare for fisherman

Torstein Røisgaard had perhaps the ultimate fishing tale to tell after a routine trip ended with a major bear scare early Tuesday morning. Røisgaard, from Notodden, had headed out for a late-night fishing trip to Trolltjønn near Smådøla in the mountain valley of Numedal. Suddenly he saw a large brown bear standing by a small [...]

Whales pay a visit to Bergen

As many as 100 grindhvaler (pilot whales) swam into the Byfjord just outside Bergen on Sunday and came surprisingly close to the city’s Nordnes peninsula before heading north again. By Monday afternoon, though, they were threatened by curious boaters whom experts feared were coming too close to the majestic marine mammals. “Don’t get too close [...]

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