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  • 2021-07-12 (xsd:date)
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  • Is This a Reindeer with Glow-in-the-Dark Antlers? (en)
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  • In July 2021, an image began circulating on social media that supposedly showed a reindeer with glow-in-the-dark antlers. The picture was shared online along with the claim that farmers in Finland had painted the antlers with a reflective coating in order to make the animals more visible at night and reduce traffic accidents: The image was not a genuine of photograph of a reindeer with glow-in-the-dark antlers, but rather a picture of a digital artwork. However, the claim accompanying the image did not stray too far from reality. The above-displayed picture was created by digital artist Vasjen Katro, who posted it to his Instagram page in February 2020 after he heard about attempts in Finland to make reindeer more visible to drivers. Katro, who is well-known as a digital artist but not a photographer, posted his image alongside the hashtag #c4d, which is a reference to the Cinema 4D digital effects and animation software suite: Although this image was an artwork, it reflects that fact that in 2014, herders in Finland attempted to reduce the number of reindeer that die due to traffic accidents by painting their antlers with a reflective paint, as BBC News reported at the time: Here's a genuine image of a reindeer with glow-in-the-dark antlers (left) that was taken in 2014, along with the digital artwork (right): Unfortunately, this glow-in-the-dark antlers plan didn't really reduce the number of reindeer deaths from traffic accidents. A few years later a new method was tested, a mobile app that allowed drivers to warn other motorists about reindeer sightings, but it doesn't appear that plan had had much of an impact either -- a chart from the Reindeer Herders' Association shows that as of 2020, about 4,000 reindeers were still dying every year due to traffic accidents: (en)
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