Meet the new moose: Highway signs get an unexpected makeover
As an 18-year -old student Chloe Chapdelaine was living in a trailer outside Foremost Alberta and driving past a moose crossing every morning on her way to work.
Something wasn't right. She started asking around.
"Is it just me or is something not right about that moose?" she says. "It was a little bit floppy."
The heavily styled moose crossing sign has been the standard across the country for years. Among its anatomical faults, it has a long tail - which actual moose do not. They have a nub shorter than the average Canadian adult's thumb.
Old moose crossing sign
So Chapdelaine sat down with a sharpie and drew up a new and more literal depiction of an adult bull moose. Gone was the long and prominent brow tine (rare in the wild), and in was a more muscular, svelte cervid, more befitting of the iconic Canadian animal.
Then she wrote a paper pointing out in detail where the old depiction of the moose had too much elk and elephant seal in its physique, and why her version ought to rule the roadsides of the Great White North.
"I mailed them out to as many different departments of transportation and government as I could - I didn't really even know where to send these letters, and I was kind of just waiting for a response," says Chapdelaine.
She eventually stopped waiting. And then largely forgot about the whole thing, she says.
Then one recent day a letter arrived from the Transportation Association of Canada. They first saw the work when it was forwarded by Alberta Transportation.
"Basically they said, 'You know what? We've received your letter that you sent four years ago and we'd like to move forward with your moose crossing sign," Chapdelaine - now 22 - says.
The new signs are already being rolled out from coast to coast to coast - replacing its misshapen predecessor as needed.
You might expect having your design work growing toward ubiquity along the nations' highways would come with a nice paycheque.
Turns out it does not.
"Yeah, so. . ." Chapdelaine says with a smile. "It kind of came down to either they would move forward with my design that I would give them for free or they would stick with the old one."
Chloe Chapdelaine, Dec. 7, 2021
She could not do that to the moose.
But she holds out some hope for one small token of appreciation.
"If I had one of the signs I just think that would be the ultimate thing to get out of this, I think it would be really cool."
The recent Mount Royal University grad has created a t-shirt that riffs on her soon-to-be famous design, with profits going to Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation.
You can find them through her Instagram bio link @chloe.chapdelaine
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
BREAKING New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark #MeToo trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
Residents of northern Alberta First Nation told to shelter in place
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.