The University College London researchers have solved the long-standing mystery of how animals are able to successfully avoid high voltage power lines.
The collaborative study (UCL, Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UIT, the Arctic University of Norway and the University of Oslo in Norway) found that ultraviolet light from high voltage power lines help keep animals away from the structures and suspended wires. Researchers said that irregular ultraviolet flashes at the insulators are invisible to humans but can be spotted by birds and mammals.
These power lines disturb the migration patterns, population and feeding habits of animals like reindeers. Plus, human population that depend on animals for their livelihood and food are also hugely affected.
This effect is more prominent in snowy areas where UV light gets reflected and scattered. The researchers said that in the dark Arctic winter the power lines appear as lines of flashing lights to reindeers.
As a result, certain Scandinavian countries are urging their respective governments to install the power lines in a place that is far from the wild and the semi domesticated reindeer population herded by the indigenous Saami people.
"Animals avoid man-made structures and, in the case of high voltage power lines, this can be by several kilometers. This is perplexing because the suspended cables are neither a physical barrier nor are associated with human activity. New information about animal vision along with the characteristics of power lines provides strong evidence that the avoidance may be linked with animals' ability to detect ultraviolet flashing on power lines that humans cannot see and which they find frightening," Professor Glen Jeffery at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology said in a statement.
The finding is published in the journal 'Conservation Biology.'
