Being that many deer impacts happen at night, I believe I read a long while ago, that their delay in response is because the headlights temporarily blind them since they’re in the dark and suddenly are looking right into light. That period of freezing is them waiting for their eyes to adjust so they can decide on the action to take.
Ooooo lights
Submitted 2 years ago by Stamets@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/a76d835f-b212-4561-a7fe-4c551cef57e6.jpeg
Comments
Veedem@lemmy.world 2 years ago
kattenluik@feddit.nl 2 years ago
I don’t blame them, ever walked when it was dark out? Headlights are blinding and I’d freeze too.
AnarchistsForDemocracy@lemmy.world 2 years ago
The lights blind them, that’s why. Deer have very sensitive eyes, they can see infrared.
cryostars@lemmyf.uk 2 years ago
Yeah but they do the same shit when it’s broad daylight / no headlights
kilgore_trout@feddit.it 2 years ago
I don’t know if you have ever encountered deers on the road in daylight, but they usually jump away.
thedarkfly@feddit.nl 2 years ago
It’s actually a very reasonable behavior if cars were normal predators: wait for the last moment before jumping out of the way so that the predator has to do a 180° and you’ve already left.
Kase@lemmy.world 2 years ago
It would be really nice if they’d actually jump away tho :(
IvyisAngy@lemmy.world 9 months ago
As a hunter, I can explain this.
Deer cannot see color and actually have incredibly shit eyesight in comparison to something like a turkey or a coyote. They rely mostly on scent and hearing to decide what to do.
They freeze because the light completely blinds them, the car has no natural smell, and all they hear is the same roaring they’ve been hearing the past hour getting slightly louder.
Like a frog in a boiling pot situation, it’s fine until it’s suddenly not and then they can’t see-
mrfriki@lemmy.world 2 years ago
You hear that Mr. Anderson?.. That is the sound of inevitability…
Turun@feddit.de 2 years ago
Humans when they see a vaguely humanoid shape in the dark: your upper picture
Humans when they are actively destroying the very basis of their existence, causing large, currently inhabited areas, to be uninhabitable in a few decades: this is fine meme, photoshopped to see the rain forest burning and cities flooding.
Rakonat@lemmy.world 2 years ago
They are just giant rodents.
Heisenburner@lemmy.world 2 years ago
PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 2 years ago
God is watching–atching-atching God is watching-atching-atching
camr_on@lemmy.world 2 years ago
BEWARE
aluminium@lemmy.world 2 years ago
A successful hunt is a auccessful hunt
ButtCheekOnAStick@lemmy.world 2 years ago
87 mph in american, btw.
Pharmacokinetics@lemmy.world 2 years ago
“There was a time where they cared nothing for General Motors when their only experience of humanity was a Volkswagen golf 1974 coming at them down a steel corridor.” -Gman
nicknonya@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 years ago
Humans when they hear a gunshot vs Humans when Great Beast Gltheth arises from the Deep Slumber 😂🤣😂😂
CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 2 years ago
To be fair on the deer, no natural predator is going to be chasing them at that kind of speed, so their instincts have no reason to be adapted to understanding objects moving that fast
humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Same for primates but we still jump out of the way. Stupid fuckin artiodactyla.
herrvogel@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Nah dude, that don’t make no sense. Do animals only ever run from predators? Do they not have an instinct to avoid colliding with objects? Do they simply let 2 tons of steel smash into them just because it doesn’t look like anything they know that would want to eat them?
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Nonsense. Deer, including wild deer, live in parts of the world where that threat exists.
Adaptation being beneficial for survival is about what IS, not only what’s natural. As far as reasons go, survival is kind of a big one for “instincts to be adapted”.
CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 2 years ago
Sure, but evolution takes a long time and cars have been a common enough threat to potentially cause selection pressure for what, a century or so maybe?