Lightwater Valley's Ultimate decapitates deer

Jrrullo, you meant BoulDEER Dash, right? ;)

James Whitmore, you thought exactly the same thing I did about hat retrieval. Darn!

During an ERT session at Kings Island in 2007, I was charmed by a deer that was standing by the Beast track (heading towards the tunnel, I believe), calmly watching us pass by.

I asked the Beast crew if they had many animal fatalities during the year and they said they really don't. They also shared the front of each train has a deer deterrent whistle (I never knew these existed... I looked them up and they do).

It works like a dog whistle... Frequencies we can not hear but they can (and I am guessing don't like very much). Different whistles have different "effective" speeds.

Not sure how well they work, but it was interesting none-the-less.

They're not hard to spot in rural areas on the front of pickups. They don't work. Whether or not the deer can hear it is irrelevant. As anyone who has hit one before in their car knows, the problem is that they stop in their tracks and ascertain if they're in trouble. Thus the "deer in the headlights" cliche.

Meeting a deer face to face is a lot less dangerous that meeting one in the safety of your car.

Smacking a bird on the front row of MForce was enough for me...might have been some feathers, but there was no blood. Poor thing dropped out of the sky pretty quickly after making contact...

I really feel like you should have disclosed your bird-smacking history to me before we rode MilF together this past July.

Maybe I should look at building a coaster in my backyard as a way of dealing with the deer. Nothing else has worked. Entire family (mom, dad and triplets) pretty much calls it home with herds strolling through at various points during the day and night. Having heads of a couple of dead deer scattered about the yard might send the message that its not a good place for them to be. Right now the only message they appear to be getting is my backyard is an all you can eat salad bar.

The deer are totally domesticated. They don't even stand up much less move when the lawnmower gets within 15-20 feet of them. Barely move off the side of the road when cars go by (you could reach out and pet them from the passenger side of the car). One or more often start walking towards me and the dog on walks. If not for the fact that the dog gets too excited and lunges towards them when they get about 10-15 feet away, I am pretty sure I could pet one of them.

RCMAC said:

Meeting a deer face to face is a lot less dangerous that meeting one in the safety of your car.

He's right, guys. I saw Tommy Boy. I know what a deer can do to the inside of a car.

birdhombre said:

I really feel like you should have disclosed your bird-smacking history to me before we rode MilF together this past July.

It was the wake-up riding the next day when it happened. Clipped the bird with the floor of the train...ride was closing in in fast (obviously, LOL) to the top of the third hill - I thought the silly thing would dodge the train. There were workers on the ground at whatever little building is there, completely sure they saw it. Now I understand how they die at winds farms...REALLY stupid.

Glad your "Bird brain" is so much better their "bird brains." ;~)

I can't believe it's not butter.

The deer whistle doesn't stop you from hitting a deer head on if it's already standing there, but they do work as they're supposed to in that they are designed to make the noise and keep deer from running in front of you as they tend to run from the sound. I'm sure if they're on the front of the beast trains running all the time, the deer likely stay clear of the rides.

Surprised the bus-riding habits of deer hasn't been mentioned:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxHEwr-yXDs

Tekwardo said:

...but they do work as they're supposed to in that they are designed to make the noise and keep deer from running in front of you as they tend to run from the sound.

Not so much.

From what I have seen, some things work to keep deer away for a period of time. But eventually they get accustomed to it and it loses its effect.

No doubt animals get accustomed to roller coaster noise. How many times have we seen birds build nests on coasters.

I've even seen a nest on Mantis, the loudest coaster at CP, built at the point where the track and support meet. The bird would fly off each time the train passes. If that were me, I'd be calling a realtor for a new place.

All I see in that article/study is that in their trial some deer made a visible reaction and others didn't. I could have missed it but I didn't see where the truck hit any deer. I could likely find a study to counter I'm sure.

The point of them are to try and keep deer away from the vehicle. They aren't effective if a deer is standing on the road or already running at you.

Most collisions are caused by deer running into you (the whistles purpose is actually to make stationary deer stay away from your vehicle when you approach), or the deer is already on the road.

Having said that, I do know that, much like spotlighting deer (which doesn't make the deer stop to ascertain if there's any danger, they naturally aren't fearful of bright lights so they don't move because they don't feel the need to), these type if whistles have been banned (not the car mounts, but they're made using the sand principle) in many states for hunting use.

Oh no!! how awful :(