LONGYEARBYEN (Norway): The road sign depicts a white polar bear against a black background, a vivid reminder of the danger the animals present in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, where bears outnumber people and encounters sometimes prove fatal.

Just 1,000 kilometres from the North Pole, this remote part of Norway also known as Spitzberg is home to 3,000 polar bears and 2,300 people, who live together peacefully for the most part in an area twice the size of Belgium.

While people live primarily on the west coast of the archipelago, which is milder thanks to the Gulf Stream, and the polar bears stick mainly to the east coast, with its broad expanses of sea ice offering the bears better seal hunting, the two do occasionally cross paths.

“The sign is there to remind visitors who are leaving (the main town) Longyearbyen to bring a rifle,” says advisor to the local governor Per Kyrre Reymert.

In these parts, carrying a gun is a must for a walk in the wilderness. At the local university, rifle shooting is obligatory for all students since field studies are part of the curriculum.

The “beware of the bears” warning, triangular in shape and outlined in red, is posted in two spots on the road heading out of Longyearbyen. It is believed to be the only such road sign in the world.

There have been four fatal accidents in Svalbard due to polar bears since 1970: a female student was found partly devoured; an Austrian camper was attacked in his tent; a tourist guide was killed on a tour; and a telegraph operator was mauled to death on the nearby island of Bjoernoeya (Bear Island).

In Longyearbyen, Liv-Rose Flygel, 52, remembers clearly her first meeting. She was 11 years old and an ageing, scrawny polar bear started chasing the snowmobile her father was driving with her perched on the back.

“It was around 25 meters behind us. It was a rather unpleasant feeling,” she recalls.

“My father tried to scare it off but wasn’t able to. He finally had to kill it.” The polar bear, which exists in only five Arctic nations, has been a protected species in Norway since 1973.—AFP