Comment by fifilura
1 day ago
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.
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).
You could snare the does and put high-vis reflective vests on them.
Do they need a hard hat too?
Indeed. You might as well try to paint all the squirrels or pigeons.
Squirrels and pigeons don't regularly weigh 120 lbs, don't like to eat the grass on road shoulders at dawn and dusk, and as a result they don't total nearly as many cars.
But all of these are far less dangerous than a 500 lbs reindeer, 600 lbs elk, or 1400 lbs moose!
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Sounds like you need wolves
The coyotes are evolving up in size to fill that niche, it's becoming a problem.
There was an old lady who swallowed a ...
Wouldn’t that be a death sentence by making them super easy for predators to spot?
Luckily most predators don't use headlights.
No, but their antlers are now white and likely reflect more light in general than uncoated.
Antlers are weapons. Most predators will avoid the food with knives on its head. From a darwinian perspective, it is also probably better that the wolves pay attention to the well-armed male deer rather than the productive females that do not have antlers.
Are deer relying on hiding from predators or are they just relying on being able to escape predators? Deer are fairly large animals so they're kinda conspicuous already. I think they also don't get white coats during winter, so they stick out from the snow.