Oddly Enough

Oddly Enough

New York City moves forward with plan for deer vasectomies

NEW YORK

New York City is moving forward with efforts to control the overpopulation of deer on Staten Island with vasectomies.

The Staten Island Advance reports Comptroller Scott Stringer is allowing the city to fast-track the contracting process on a $2 million study.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation also must approve the plan. The department has said deer fertility control programs have “limited effectiveness.” It only permits such programs if they’re part of a scientific study.

Deer can harm property, spread tick-borne illness and cause traffic accidents.

A 2014 aerial survey found 763 deer in Staten Island’s green spaces. Some ecologists believe there might now be more than 1,000.

The study would start in September. Hundreds of bucks would be tranquilized, given vasectomies and released onto parkland over three years.

Glowing antlers failed, so Finns try app to save reindeer

HELSINKI

Finnish reindeer herders in the Arctic have painted Rudolph’s antlers in fluorescent colors, hung reflectors around their necks and even used movable traffic signs, but none of the efforts have helped reduce the annual 4,000 reindeer road deaths.

Now they have decided on a new tactic: an interactive reindeer warning app where drivers can tap their mobile-phone screens to register any reindeer they see and get warnings if they are approaching an area where reindeers have been spotted.

They’re hoping to save at least some of the 300,000 reindeer that wander freely in the wilds of Lapland, sometimes described as the last wilderness in Europe.

In a pilot project, drivers of heavy transport vehicles are being given 1,000 free handsets, which have been deactivated for any other use than the reindeer warning system.

If it proves successful, the app will be available for download on smartphones later this year.

Anne Ollila, director of the Finnish Reindeer Herders’ Association, said Wednesday the other methods simply didn’t work.

“Drivers often mistook reindeer with reflectors for people in the dark, thinking they wouldn’t run into the middle of the road when they saw car headlights approaching,” she told The Associated Press. “And the deer would tear the reflectors off.”

Reindeer traffic warning signs were stolen by tourists for souvenirs, and reindeer would scrape off the fluorescent paint from their antlers. “Somehow the reindeer know they had paint on their antlers – maybe their friends laughed at them,” Ollila said.

Reindeer husbandry provides work for some 10,000 people in the region.

Associated Press