You never know where you’ll run into those pesky polar bears . . .

Norway is giggling at Australia’s expense.  The Telegraph reports:

Norwegian diplomats have poked fun at official Australian travel advice on how to avoid a polar bear attack in the Scandinavian country.

Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) softly dismissed tips from Australia’s Smartraveller advisory and consular information service with a light-hearted Twitter response.

“Thank you Australia for your concern,” Norway’s MFA posted. “We can assure you that in mainland Norway all polar bears are stuffed and poses only limited risk.”

Officials followed up the sarcastic response with a photo of a stuffed polar bear on display in the office of Norway’s prime minister Erna Solberg.

The Australian advisory’s Twitter post had failed to clarify that the warning was actually for travellers visiting Svalbard, an archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole, which has a population of around 2,000 polar bears.

There’s more at the link.

Oh, well.  I suppose it’s a natural enough mistake for an Australian to make, from the far side of the globe!  “Down under” indeed!

Peter