Trains that bark like dogs and snort like deer

Deer often congregate to lick the train tracks in the evening and late at night

Asahi Shimbun newspaper has reported that trains in Japan have started barking like dogs and snorting like deer. This is to prevent accidents.

Blaring the animal sounds from the top of the oncoming train was found to ward the deer off in good enough time to prevent any crashes. Officials at the Railway Technical Research Institute confirmed that there were 45% fewer deer on the tracks when the sounds were played, compared to when the trains ran as normal.

Deer will often let off a short, shrill snort when they want to alert other deer to danger.

Deer are scared of dogs (Picture: Getty Images)

Considering this, researchers decided to combine the warning snort with the sound of an animal deer are afraid of – dogs. In tests, a three-second-long recording of a deer snort and 20 seconds of a barking dog were played from a running train car at night.

Deer were seen from aboard the trains just 7.5 times per 100km, around 45% less than when the sounds weren’t played.