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Animal traffic signs
warning signs
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| The elk warning signs are very popular: Foreign tourists steal them and local
hunters (?) use them as shooting targets. You had better take these signs seriously, though. Up to 800 kilograms of long-legged animal through the
windscreen is kind of overwhelming. Elks tend to use their established tracks, even long after the town has expanded beyond the tracks. Notice also that they usually (but not always!) flee from people, but they're not afraid of cars and may even attack the car. This is the Eurasian Elk – Alces alces (or machlis). It's often called moose because it looks like its American close relative – Alces americanus (or the Alaskan Alces gigas), and because in America elk is a large deer also called wapiti (Cervus canadiensis).
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| The Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) is also quite big, the stag may reach about 250 kilograms. They are not so well adapted to cold winters as elks, so they live mainly in coastal areas of Southern Norway (and most of Central Europe). (The elegant Roe Deer, weighting less than 35 kilograms, live in Southern Norway (and Central and Southern Europe). If one of them leaps across the road, its mate is usually close behind.)
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| Wild reindeer are too shy to approach a road, therefore this sign concerns the domesticated ones. They are found in the northern parts of Norway from Trøndelag and up. Driving through the highlands of Southern Norway you may also come across one of those commercial "lapp camps" displaying a couple of reindeer with beautiful antlers. In Norway wild reindeer live only on Hardangervidda and
Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella, both are highlands of the southern part.
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| This sign is usually seen where a farmer occasionally drives his cattle across the road. On some minor roads cattle may also move freely on the road, and they are damned stubborn. A car, however big or fast, doesn't impress them. Neither does the horn (the automobile's). On a narrow road you may have to leave the car and start negotiations. (Don't worry, this doesn't happen often, cows are never aggressive, and they always – in a sluggish way – obey people.)
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| The sheep-and-lamb
sign is really cute. When lambs are frightened by an approaching car, they run
to their mother – often across the road.
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| Riding is a popular sport particularly among teenage girls. There are numerous riding schools where you can borrow a horse and take riding lessons. Effectively – though not formally – this sign advertises a riding school.
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| This sign isn't quite official and it isn't quite serious. This sample stands at the foot of Trollstigen, a road virtually climbing a mountain. The sign depicts a troll, one of those Nordic mythical creatures, you know. Trolls are supposed to be frightening and Trollstigen has scared many of its visitors. Thus it is an appropriate warning sign.
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| This sign is deadly serious, but it isn't a road sign – simply because there aren't many roads on Spitzbergen. It warns you of polar bears (ice bears) – never leave the protection of nearby houses (they never lock the doors) without carrying a gun. This sign has changed; it used to be a black polar bear on a white background.
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