[PDN Sahara 29P]

Oh boy! The quiet nature of the Sahara on its stock tires in electric mode presents a new dimension for wildlife avoidance. In 50 years of driving (knock on wood) never made contact with a deer, smaller varmints yes and very few.

This occurred at 3:00 in the afternoon at 55 mph.

This was a totally different reaction than I have witnessed over many encounters. In our area in Michigan (northern mitten) deer are abundant and are seen quite often crossing the roadways. These stock tires are quiet and at 55 mph in electric the road contact is the only sound from the vehicle. So, the first came out and crossed but stood on the shoulder, as expected another entered the roadway. It came to a complete halt on the opposing lane. I was decelerating and not too worried but it was dragging ass like there weren't any vehicles on the road. It did finally scoot across my lane and both disappeared into the trees. Left a good deal of urine behind while it was praying for traction on the asphalt.

Certainly the stealthy characteristic of electric vehicles give these animals far less time to react. Drive safe.

 

[Agamemnon]

Maybe tap a kazoo to the hood like a hood ornament. A ram air kazoo.

I kid. I can report the same.. but for me its mule deer and I'm pretty sure they just lack the intelligence to fear for their lives (Colorado).

 

[Rubicon71]

I was a little concerned about this, my Bolt has taken more small birds and small furry critters in my 8 months with it than all ICE cars before it. Deer just ignore it completely too. I’m hoping the wife's Rubicon will generate enough wind noise and tire noise to help, especially since it’s arriving in prime deer season. Never gave much thought to the bumper deer whistles, but maybe worth a shot.

 

[Avocado]

I haven’t tried the little whistles here in North America, but when I lived in Australia I did a lot of driving in the country, some people used to use kangaroo whistles or Shu-roo’s there.

I am pretty sure they didn’t do anything - I used to watch the reflectors on the side of the road which was pretty common back there. If they started blinking then I knew something was walking in front of them to cross the road so I’d slow down and get ready, more often than not there’d be some roo’s or emu’s thinking about crossing the road to join their friends on the other side.

Failing that a good bull bar was a last resort. But the bull bars there were pretty beefy and covered the whole front of the Ute.

Where I worked we used to load out road trains and they had these whistles plasted all over their trucks - they still hit roo’s and we’d often talk about how to avoid these kinds of things. That’s where I got the “watch the road side reflectors” tip from.

All that being said if you don’t mind the look, for $15 or less, even if it worked .15% of the time it could be worth it.

 

[Rubicon71]

I haven’t tried the little whistles here in North America, but when I lived in Australia I did a lot of driving in the country, some people used to use kangaroo whistles or Shu-roo’s there.

I am pretty sure they didn’t do anything - I used to watch the reflectors on the side of the road which was pretty common back there. If they started blinking then I knew something was walking in front of them to cross the road so I’d slow down and get ready, more often than not there’d be some roo’s or emu’s thinking about crossing the road to join their friends on the other side.

Failing that a good bull bar was a last resort. But the bull bars there were pretty beefy and covered the whole front of the Ute.

Where I worked we used to load out road trains and they had these whistles plasted all over their trucks - they still hit roo’s and we’d often talk about how to avoid these kinds of things. That’s where I got the “watch the road side reflectors” tip from.

All that being said if you don’t mind the look, for $15 or less, even if it worked .15% of the time it could be worth it.

They’d be pretty easy to go unnoticed on the front bumper of the Jeep, not so much on the Bolt.

 

[Avocado]

They’d be pretty easy to go unnoticed on the front bumper of the Jeep, not so much on the Bolt.

Yeah for sure, there are plenty of places to hide them, especially on a Jeep, they’d blend right in.

 

[Kudzoo]

I put those whistles on my vehicles. We have Muleys and they're just extremely dumb. My wife says God made them to be food. She's probably right. We've never hit the deer, but there's a new dead one a couple times a week on the hwy.

 

[Kenji]

Deer from the left, 45 mph 1998 Dodge Durango V8 5.9l 4x4 Red. Deer hit front left corner , zero damage just one light bulb out.
was at high noon in town.

 

[Kenji]

did i tell you when i run over a tortoise ,
about center of north carolina i was on a trip with family and suddenly the trafic stopped in the middle of nowhere. a guy jumped around the street and stopped every car stand infront of them, then he did the same in front of my truck 1998 Dodge Ram 1500 5.6 liter, just saying, but i saw nothing to be concerned and rolled slowy foreward...than...guy raised his hands to his head like in Edvard Munch The Cry

..and a Tortois poped out under my Truck Tires like a Caveman Frisbee...shivering the the road and landing into the grass and walked away..

..why did that guy not just picked up the animal and put it into the grass...grrr.