Norway

Norway

Coordinates: 63 0 N 11 0 E

Population: 4,611,000 (2006 est.)

Thanks to Sarah Palin’s Vice Presidential nomination, moose have been appearing in the US news quite a bit more than usual. In Scandinavia however—particularly Norway—the largest member of the deer family frequently makes headlines and generates an equally large amount of money for the Nordic country; one estimate puts the value of this year’s meat yield alone at $60 million. For a nation that imported over $5 billion in food last year, this is no small sum. The 5-week hunting season in Norway began last Thursday and will likely result in a lessening of the population by about 35,000 animals. Besides the monetary benefit to sportsmen (and women), this annual culling means safer highways and railroads for Norwegians, and, some would argue, a cleaner atmosphere for the rest of us.

Ben Keene is the editor of Oxford Atlas of the World. Check out some of his previous places of the week.