why a deer freezes in the headlights?
In: Biology
Deer are evolved to deal with predators, not cars. When they spot a car it is quite far away for a predator and so holding still to hide would tend to be effective. So they are standing there trying to figure out what they are looking at, if it is a threat and even seen them, when suddenly it has barreled down on them faster than any predator they have adapted to.
Also keep in mind that automobiles don’t show movement like animals do. If a wolf is sprinting at you the legs will be pounding, the shoulders and hind quarters bobbing, in general looking very different to if it is just standing there.
In contrast deer likely have plenty of time to observe automobiles at night when deer are out feeding. Parked automobiles that is; they spend hours on end without moving at all. When they move though it is faster than any ground animal and the spinning of wheels is minor and doesn’t change their silhouette. Headlights and other signal lights are similarly unexpected by deer as no animal emits such things.
So a deer might think something like this:
“Is that a quiet growl in the distance? Freeze, what could it be? Weird, is that a pond reflecting the moon over there? It is way off by one of those boxy rock things, maybe the growling is from behind it? Well it is a long way off so… no wait, it is right up on me now?! Ahhh!!” Bonk!
Latest Answers