Spaulding Outdoors by Jack Spaulding 

 

Earlier this month was Weird-Acting Wildlife Week for me. Just about the time I think I have seen everything, I see something from the wildlife kingdom that leaves me flabbergasted.

Returning home from a conference at Rolla, Mo., I was rounding the south side of the city of St. Louis in the outside lane of four jam-packed lanes of rush hour interstate traffic. Suddenly, the semi in front of me made a slight veer to the left, and I could see something just ahead right at the edge of the road.

The object was dark, roundish in shape and appeared to be moving. It was some kind of animal. At first, I thought it was a hog or a dog, until I got a little closer.

As I approached, the critter straightened up, and I could see it was a full-grown, very large wild tom turkey – and it was not alone. Six more of his buddies were hunkered down right alongside the blur of traffic, gobbling up waste grain on the shoulder. So much for the timidity of the wild turkey! The birds were so close the semis were ruffling their feathers as the trucks whipped by at 65 mph.

Seeing their lack of concern for the roaring traffic reminded me of the old “deer whistles” sold years ago. They were highly touted as an end to the dreaded deer/vehicle collision because of their ultra-high pitched sound that would instantly scare the holy bahgeebers out of every deer in your area of the county.

The advertising line included: “Put a set of deer whistles on your vehicle and never worry about having a collision with a deer again.” Fear sells … and they sold a ton of them back in the day.

I remember the first time I began to suspect deer whistles might be ineffective. It was in the late 1980s, when deer were really beginning to get established in rural Indiana. I remember seeing several deer grazing along the railroad track as I stopped to allow an approaching train to cross. I thought to myself, This will be fun watching the deer scatter.

As the train rumbled toward the intersection pulling a huge amount of clanging and banging cars, the engineer laid on the horn and blasted out a warning to any drivers thinking of trying to cross the tracks.

I couldn’t believe my eyes as the deer didn’t dash away in a panic; they didn’t even so much as look up as the horn sounded and the train roared by within 50 feet of them. The deer had become accustomed to the sound of the trains passing daily and had totally lost their fear.

The deer whistles came into vogue here in the States because of a similar success/deception “down under” in bloody Australia. It seems the Aussies originally came up with the ultrasonic horns to scare away kangaroos, and the alert horns were called Shu-roos.

Like the American version to follow, the kangaroo whistlers worked equally well at relieving extra money from the pockets of gullible travelers. Referring to my go-to-resource for wildlife research, Wikipedia, we find the horns have been researched by a state Department of Natural Resources and a couple of universities:

“A deer horn, or deer whistle, is a (whistle) mounted on automobiles intended to help prevent collisions with deer. Air moving through the device produces ultrasound or other high-frequency sound waves, intended to warn deer of a vehicle’s approach.

“Deer are highly unpredictable, skittish animals whose normal reaction to an unfamiliar sound is to stop, look and listen to determine if they are being threatened. Scientific studies of the devices have indicated they do not in fact reduce collisions.”

Researchers with the Georgia Game and Fish Department and University of Wisconsin-Madison have pointed out several reasons why the devices do not (and probably could not) work as advertised:

“Some deer whistles do not emit any ultrasonic sound under the advertised operating conditions (typically when the vehicle exceeds 30 mph).

”Ultrasonic sound does not carry very well. It does not travel a long enough distance to provide adequate warning, and also is stopped by virtually any intervening object, so any curves in a road will block the sound.

“Little is known about the auditory limits of deer, but current knowledge indicates deer hear approximately the same frequencies as humans, and thus if humans can’t hear a sound, deer probably can’t either.

”If deer could hear ultrasound, it is unknown if it would alarm them or induce a flight response. Certainly if they heard it on a regular basis, they would get used to the sound and not react to it.”

In addition to the Georgia and Wisconsin studies, a study by the Ohio State Police Department also indicated the whistles are ineffective. Independent testing carried out by the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne reached the same conclusion about the Shu-roo and kangaroos.

Well – maybe the deer whistles would work if you were the only one on your road to have a set, never drove faster than 30 mph or had no hard-of-hearing deer in the neighborhood.

I checked, and there are still places on the Internet selling deer whistles. For $4.95 and shipping, you can still buy a set of deer whistles to outfit your Subaru or F-150. Maybe they would sell more of the warning devices if they advertised the deer whistles have completely eliminated car/kangaroo accidents in the United States.

Maybe the automotive industry needs a turkey warning whistle. It could be called a “Turkey-Shoo.” By using a little creative marketing, Turkey-Shoos could be advertised as making the ultrasonic sound of a hungry Puritan. All one would need is a little advertising – and could use the south side of St. Louis as a test market.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World.