‘94 WINTER OLYMPICS / LILLEHAMMER : DATELINE / LILLEHAMMER : They Herd It Is a Problem When the Moose Run Loose

Among the first things a visitor notices when heading into the Norwegian countryside are the roadside moose-crossing signs.

The triangular, red-edged white signs with the moose silhouette are everywhere. That’s because in southern Norway, moose are abundant. There is even a moose-crossing pin, a popular item among traders.

They call them elk here, but moose they look like and moose they are. The largest wild animal in the country, moose have trekked the lowlands east of Oslo and north through Lillehammer for centuries. This winter, because of the deep snow, they are having a difficult time. Instead of following their usual routes, many are taking the path of least resistance, wandering placidly along plowed roadways and railroad tracks.

And because of that, and increased rail traffic to accommodate Olympic travelers, according to Arild Vollan of NBS Norwegian State Railways, moose have been dying in alarming numbers. More than 300 have been killed throughout Norway this winter. That means lots of cars and some train engines are considerably the worse for wear as well.

The railroad has been working on the problem, though, and has arrived at some solutions. One of them is wolf urine.

Besides humans, the moose has only one natural enemy, the wolf. Wolves are scarce in Norway these days, but the moose don’t know that and so the railroad has hung sachets of chemically produced essence of wolf urine on lines along moose trails near the tracks. The moose smell the wolf urine and return to the forest.

The railroad also has plowed old logging roads and strewn moose food--cut saplings, bales of hay and eight tons of pine needles, a moose delicacy--along them, far from the tracks.

Finally, a helicopter patrol keeps track of meandering moose and warns train engineers to slow when the big animals are near the tracks. Just the other day, the ‘copter spotted 70 within 500 yards of the tracks. The helicopter also carries a long line and a net--for instant moose relocation when necessary.

And, says the railroad’s Ingri Garberg, the save-the-moose measures are working. Since the start of the Games, only three have been killed.