To Avoid Deer Strikes, Finland Is Painting Deer Antlers with Reflective Paint (2014)
59 comments
·April 21, 2025comrade1234
OneLeggedCat
During the rut, I've seen muleys here in Montana act absolutely bonkers. I once saw a young but large buck darting in and out of traffic, playing chicken with oncoming 50 mph vehicles, to impress a group of does. He'd run across the road right in front of a car, then pronk around proudly while the does stared at him.
FredPret
> while the does stared at him
I hope they stared in horror and not arousal, otherwise these deer will never learn
trilbyglens
Sounds like human males in rut
INTPenis
Was there a game fence preventing it from entering the woods maybe? Not sure how you do in WI but here in Sweden highways are always lined with game fences.
The sad thing is when an animal somehow gets over it, under it, however, and is then trapped on the highway side.
bell-cot
My guess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_wasting_disease
And based on the USGS map, it is very common in WI.
mikeyouse
Eh, deer are just very stupid and indecisive when there are headlights. That’s why “shining” while hunting is illegal. There’s a chance that it had CWD but given my experience with them in Michigan, it’s just as likely to have been a dumb one.
fifilura
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.
joecool1029
It's not possible at all to do this for white-tailed deer. The does and fawns don't grow antlers. My state, NJ, has a population of over 100,000 deer and average densities over 100 individuals per square mile (with some areas over double that).
tantalor
You could snare the does and put high-vis reflective vests on them.
recursive
Indeed. You might as well try to paint all the squirrels or pigeons.
Izikiel43
Sounds like you need wolves
joecool1029
The coyotes are evolving up in size to fill that niche, it's becoming a problem.
recursive
There was an old lady who swallowed a ...
pelagic_sky
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...
anyonecancode
We have that in a forested section near me in New Jersey. I think it might be this: https://deerdeter.com/
bethekidyouwant
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
Tuna-Fish
There are no wild reindeer in Finnish Lapland. Every reindeer has an owner. The Sami, who practice large-scale reindeer herding, routinely round up every reindeer in the country every year.
They also prevent predation by exterminating all predators that threaten their herds.
Moru
I guess they think the whole world knows about domestic animals in northern europe. This is not wild animals we are talking about, then it makes some sort of sense, right.
vanattab
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)
rdtsc
> Anne Ollila, chairwoman of the Reindeer Herders Association
These seem to be either domesticated or herded on certain territories by natives. So spray painting a herd may not be as hard as it sounds.
From https://reindeerherding.org/world-reindeer-herders
> The Association of World Reindeer Herders is a voluntary civil society organization for all the 24 different nomadic indigenous peoples who make a living from reindeer herding across 10 nation-states in the circumpolar north, formally founded during the 1st World Congress of Reindeer Herders in 1997.
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edelbitter
"none of the efforts have helped reduce the annual 4,000 reindeer road deaths"
https://apnews.com/general-news-801aa30308b24b459251c60d569d...
altairprime
Have they had better luck with wildlife crossings since 2016?
https://transportation.libguides.com/c.php?g=849313&p=607536...
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Kon-Peki
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!
aiauthoritydev
Another approach could be to have wildlife camera all around and when you detect a deer on cam, show special signals on the road.
Moru
The reindeer is not randomly showing up out of the forest. They are herded. The people herding them is putting up plenty of signs. But the reindeers are not on the actual road the whole time so people stop bothering about the signs. And some just drive really fast and realize too late that the warning signs in the cars manual that says "This function does not stop the physical laws from working." might be correct.
The raindeer is not affraid of cars, they just stand there doing nothing until they get hit. It might be a big herd with hundreds of animals on the road and another thousand in the surrounding forest so not much place to run either.
jmclnx
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 ?
tokai
Yes, they are livestock. The amount of wild reindeer in finland is a rounding error compared to herded reindeer.
melling
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.
valbaca
Deers also shed their antlers yearly...so who's maintaining this?
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…