This photo of a reindeer with glowing antlers is an artwork inspired from Finland - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 16, 2021
A photo of a reindeer with brightly glowing antlers is being widely shared through a post claiming that the antlers were painted with reflective paint in Finland. The post even claims that with the paint, the reindeer could be visible from long distances to help motorists avoid road mishaps in Finland. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of a reindeers’ antlers with reflective paint in Finland.
Fact: The photo is not real, it is an artwork by an Instagram user named, @vasjenkatro. The artist’s rendering was inspired from Finland’s idea of painting reindeers’ antlers, so they are not hit by cars at night. In 2014, the Finnish Reindeer Herders Association started to coat the antlers with reflective paint to prevent frequent accidents involving reindeer. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When reverse image search is done on the photo, an Instagram post with the same image was found. The image was posted 06 February 2021 by a user named, @vasjenkatro, who according to his Instagram profile, is a visual designer. The post reads, ‘This is 3D. It is not real.’ The artist even says that he made the artwork after he saw that in Finland, the reindeers’ antlers are painted so they don’t get hit by cars at night.
There are frequent accidents involving reindeer in Finland because of multiple roads and railways going through the reindeer pasture areas. Therefore, in 2014, the Finnish Reindeer Herders Association started to coat the antlers with reflective paint to prevent traffic accidents. However, the reflective paint campaign wasn’t as successful; other methods like using an app were being tried to prevent animals from dying in car crashes.
One real image of a reindeer shining with fluorescent paint can be seen in this article. But the photo in the post is artwork and is not real.
To sum it up, this photo of a reindeer with glowing antlers is an artwork inspired by Finland, where reindeers’ antlers were painted to prevent accidents at night.