• 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 month ago

    I’m now imagining being in the woods at night with a headlamp on. An elk, head down, charging me with its rack pointed at my chest and glowing like its fresh from the flames of hell.

    I’m not ruling that out as a way I might like to die one day.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Scary enough to stumble on one in the deep woods at 3AM. One of the only times I nearly drew my gun was seeing a triangular face staring at me from 15’. Had seen a Florida Panther the year before and my dumb ass thought that’s what it was.

    • Dasus@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      They’re not painting elk. They’re painting reindeer. They’re always just chilling on the roads in Lapland.

      They’re semi domesticated, so a bit different to handle than wild elk, especially the ones like in America, which are bigger than ours. We do have moose though, but no-one tried to paint them, lol.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Even if it was brightly glowing, predators would not approach. They’re actually very skittish around new stuff. And once they figure out it’s the giant deer with head knives, they’d refrain from going near them because of that. Just like they already do.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      It only glows when you shine a light on it. Predators would never see it.

      They’re actually very skittish

      LOL, people around here seem to think the animals are going to up and attack them. Damn, I can almost never get close enough for a good look!

  • Frostbeard@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Tbf. Not that many predators left in northern Sweden/Norway/Finland. And believe me that the Sami reindeer owners work their hardest to illegally hunt the remaining down.

  • Dasus@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    There aren’t really many predators in Lapland.

    Most of the areas the reindeer live in have practically zero wolves or bears.

    Not exactly, there are wolves, but, like, not really.

    Also, unless they’re emitting light, the reflective paint won’t really help the potential predators.