There has long been talk of mysterious beasts haunting the great moors of south-west England. But night-time travellers on Dartmoor should now look out for a very odd creature indeed – a glow-in-the dark pony.
The horses will be daubed with reflective paint to make them more visible to drivers after a rise in livestock being killed on the roads. About 60 animals have died on the Devon moor’s roads this year, an increase on previous years.
The idea to paint them was inspired by a Scandinavian scheme in which reindeer’s antlers are made to glow in the dark, and the Dartmoor Livestock Protection Society (DLPS) initiative will include ponies, cattle and sheep.
Dartmoor ponies painted 'to cut deaths' http://t.co/iLxW8KTMtl
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Karla McKechnie, a livestock protection officer for DLPS, said she took the Scandinavian idea to a south-western manufacturer, who made a paint that glows brightly in the dark when a vehicle’s headlights catch it.
McKechnie said tests on a couple of ponies had worked well and the scheme is set to be rolled out across the moor in the coming months. The animals will not be covered head to toe, but have a strip painted across or around their bodies.
Rob Steemson, Dartmoor National Park’s head ranger, said the authority backed the project. He said a previous scheme, in which reflective collars were attached to animals, failed because “when the animals wandered through the gorse they could be pulled off”.
There are challenges, however, as ponies and cattle moult and sheep become woolly and get shorn – so working out the best time to apply the paint is an issue.
Steemson said there would be no need for the project if motorists drove with greater caution across the moor. “People should slow down. When they cross a cattle grid, they ought to realise that animals could be around and drive carefully.”
