Finland is painting deer antlers with reflective paint (2014)

Just a random WI deer story. I have a few but here’s one.

I was driving on a two-lane highway and saw a deer up ahead on the side of the road so I started slowing down. The deer saw me, panicked and ran into the brush/woods, then changed direction and ran out and back toward the highway. I kept slowing. It changed direction and ran back toward the woods, changed direction again and ran back toward the highway. By now I was at a full stop and parallel to the deer. It ran head first into the side of my truck, fell down, got up and sort of stumbled back into the woods…

There were experiment painting reindeer antlers here in Finland. But it failed, the paint wont last. So nothing to see here really. Yet another internet ”thing” circling around

Title should be changed to reindeer, not deer. As those are domesticated by the Sami people. Then it makes more sense and should not be a major task, since they are regularly caught to be ear-marked for example. In general a good idea IMO.

For deer it would be trickier, but I imagine you could somehow do it by setting up feeding stations (pretty common with hunters) and spray them when they approach it. But it would be messy. Now my imagination is wandering, please stop me.

Reminds me of efforts to reduce roadkill in Australia.

"The virtual fence is the latest attempt to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions. It uses a line of posts spaced along the roadside, each with a unit producing loud sounds and flashing lights aimed away from the road. Vehicle headlights activate the units, which are claimed to alert animals and reduce the risk of collision."

https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2024...

In the New Forest national park in the UK (where there are about 5000 free roaming ponies) they've been fitting them with reflective/hi-viz collars for years. Makes them much easier to see at night in winter.

https://www.hlsnewforest.org.uk/2024/10/24/reflective-collar...

"none of the efforts have helped reduce the annual 4,000 reindeer road deaths"

https://apnews.com/general-news-801aa30308b24b459251c60d569d...

They are painting antlers. No information on how they are going to do this every year. (since antlers are only around for eight months a year and I imagine you have to paint them once they’re fully grown so four months in?) What an absolutely useless article, how do you actually bag and tag every reindeer in the entire country, it makes absolutely no sense

This article is horrible. Theres barely any info and a single picture. This passes as journalism?

It is a good idea, but how ?

I believe deer loose their antlers every year. Painting thousands of deer every year seems impossible.

Or are the referring to deer that are being herded ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeer_herding

I don't understand how this was going to work? Was the plan to paint every year them all every year? I am not very familiar with reindeer but don't they shed the antlers every year like whitetail? So for most of the year they don't have antlers or they are growing them and they are covered with a soft velvet and only harden and scrap off the velvet layer on tress right before breading season. They fight and breed then shed thier antlers. You would have a very short window after they scrape thier velvet to paint and it would only be good for a 3-5 months at most. Granted at least for whitetail most of the accidents happen during the breeding season (like humans, male deer can be pretty reckless when it comes time to mate)

A few years ago someone made a fluorescent GM rabbit. I guess if they give that gene to a deer after a few generations it would spread through the population and solve the issue. If we consider it safe and ethical to release GM animals into the wild...

It's cool, BUT if this was done in America, all of those deer would be dead by daylight thanks to hunters. "Hi Hunters! Look! I'm here! See my glowing rack?! Yes, Over here! Shoot me! Shooooot Meeeeeeee!"

I was surprised how many dead deer I saw driving down the M11/A11 in Norfolk. I think I counted 10 dead muntjac.

Sure, give it a shot!

Reindeer are the only deer where the male and female both grow antlers, so it could help.

But… antlers fall off and regrow the next year, so you’d have to keep repainting…

Also, when the males rut, they tend to scrape their antlers on trees, so that’s probably not good for keeping paint on the antlers. Bonus! Finnish drivers will likely be able to see reflective trees and avoid them!

Another approach could be to have wildlife camera all around and when you detect a deer on cam, show special signals on the road.

Like imagine being a reindeer looking at your friend's glowing antlers at night!

I feel like this would fuck with me if i was a deer, imagine someone gets you, sprays stuff onto our antlers and suddenly they glow when light hits them, thats some animal body horror

Sounds like a job for AI and a HUD. We have deer in my area. I need something. I drive slowly but k owing when they’re around would be helpful.

s/is/tried

Deers also shed their antlers yearly...so who's maintaining this?

Won't that also make them trivial to hunt?

Is finland still doing this?

(2014)

Looks like the Regal Ancestor Spirit from Elden Ring, lol.

Won't that make them prime target for predators? Wolves also love to munch. And a lighthouse proclaiming dinner is here won't be helping their chances of survival either.

[dead]

We should genetically modify some males to glow in the dark, much like how we neuter mosquitoes by using a few modified males.

/s

aka "Legal way to kill & steal a reindeer". That is why there are so many accidents.