Last week, I wrote about rut and during this time deer movement is the highest of the year. Deer activity isn’t confided to just wooded areas either and come November, because of the chasing going on, it’s been said, more deer are being killed by bumpers than other times of the year. I’m sure everyone has encountered deer crossing the road Infront of them and have seen many dead deer on the side of the road that were hit by vehicles.

While driving from town to town on our two-lane road, I’m not saying these are misconceptions, but here are a few things to take into consideration. So, in my opinion are these true or false.
1) Deer are more active a half hour before and after sunset. This is kind of true.  Deer are not as nocturnal as most believe. I’ve talked to other people that have trail cameras set up and like myself have viewed just as many deer during the day light hour as the darkness of night. The only difference I would say is, we see a higher number of bucks on our cameras at night.

2) We see more deer where deer crossing signs are put up. I believe this to be false. There are areas where deer crossing signs are posted, and I haven’t seen a deer in years. but at some point, there had to be and possibly still are incidents concerning deer/vehicle collisions in those areas. When you see the deer crossing signs, state, county and other agencies must have done some kind of study and determined the signs at these locations were needed. Then again, I’ve seen deer walking in the middle of downtown roads and no signs were posted.

3) Deer whistles work. These deer whistles use frequencies that supposedly warn deer that our vehicle is approaching and make the deer run away from the road. Studies have shown MOST of these deer whistles do not produce the ultrasonic sound frequency as advertised, while other whistles tested didn’t make any sound whatsoever. Researchers said, when testing deer whistles, the lack of response from deer showed, 1) Either deer do not have enough time to react. 2) Deer do not recognize that sound as a threat 3) They don’t hear anything. If you feel safer with these deer whistles on your vehicle, I say go for it.

4) Flashing your headlights works. This is definitely FALSE. I’m sure you heard the phrase “DEER IN THE HEARLIGHTS LOOK” right? Deer can freeze in the middle of the road and stare but that’s because of the high number of rods (cells located in the retina that are sensitive to light), and bright lights dilate their pupils. So, lights from vehicles can temporarily blind or make deer disoriented.

5) Honking your horn helps. This is also FALSE. Hitting your horn while seeing a deer on the side of the road, can either startle the deer and make them run away from the road or it might frighten deer, making them run erratically increasing the risk of a collision.

The best advice I can pass on is this. Slow down while driving 24 hours a day. If you see one deer near or crossing the road, trust me, there are more. If there are no oncoming vehicles, driving with your high beams on illuminates the side of the road and your viewing distance ahead improves.

There can be a higher number of deer in some areas. These locations might have water on one side of the road and woods on the other side. For whatever reason, when you see a deer crossing sign, just be more vigilant.