Every year, somewhere between a million and two million drivers collide with large animals on our roads, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.  Around two hundred of these collisions are fatal.  (That is, they are fatal to occupants of the vehicles.  The fatality rate for the unfortunate wildlife is obviously much higher.)

Most of these collisions involve deer, and autumn is the time of the year when you’re most likely to hit one.  Deer are increasingly mobile right now; they mate and migrate during the fall.  Drivers are more likely to run into deer very early in the morning and very late at night, and the most dangerous places to be driving are on two lane roads.

If you live in the country, then you have probably heard about deer whistles or “deer horns”, like this one at deerwhistle.com.  You may even have a pair of them stuck to your front bumper already.  Deer horns channel air passing by a car through whistles that supposedly deliver a piercing sound to deer and scare them away.  But, do deer whistles really work?

No, they do not.  A research study of air-fed whistles was published in 2003.  The study was lead by by Peter M. Scheifele, a researcher in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Connecticut.  The scientific report may be found here, but the results are explained much better in this article.

Basically, many deer horns make sound that falls outside of the audible range of deer.  Even the whistles that do blow within the correct range of hearing may not sound much louder to deer than the oncoming vehicles themselves or the sound of a brisk wind.

So, what strategies are effective in reducing collisions with deer?  This company makes an electronic deer whistle, which has not yet been thoroughly tested.  The federal government actually has a bunch of ideas as well.  Check back next week to learn what might be done to reduce this danger.

 

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