They are going to use reflective paint to reduce the number of road fatalities in reindeer.

Update 2015-01-09

The reply is a press release about the study. It goes some of the way to answering my question, but only at a superficial level. The study is a two phase trial, on 20 individuals in the spring and then 300 in the autumn. They haven't really provided much detail regarding how they are going to see if it is effective.

I then got this email that clarified the study:
"Hi,

In this phase, we are just testing the usefulness of the paint: if it stays long enouhg on antlers in natural conditions and can be seen by drivers. In february we probably know the answer. Then we decide if we will start a longterm study with this.

Anne"

I now understand that the trial is at an early stage and so the questions that I had about it were more complex than the current study can deal with.

It's going to be very interesting to see the results of this study and the next stage of evaluating if the paint reduces accidents and reindeer moratlity.

Attached file

Rating