Dartmoor is planning to introduce glow in the dark ponies to prevent the animals from being hit by vehicles at night.
Dartmoor ponies are set to glow in the dark to help out motorists
The Forest Parish Council in Devon have ordered fluorescent collars for the ponies to increase their visibility in the dark, as fatalities on the moor have risen at an alarming rate.
The scheme has been inspired by the success of a scheme in the New Forest six years ago, where ponies were painted with a stripe of glow in the dark paint that allowed them to get noticed a lot easier.
Parish councillor, Greg Manning, told the Tavistock Times Gazette newspaper: “We’ve been told of 800 cases in the last six years where an animal has been killed in a traffic accident - and that’s the ones we know about. What we don’t know about is the number of animals who have been hit and wandered off to die an agonising death somewhere.”
He added:“It works in the New Forest, where the number of animal deaths have decreased. It’s not only the number of animals which are killed, it’s about the cost, because goodness knows how much is spent on accidents when you take into consideration calling out an ambulance, the police and going to hospital.”