New information about animal vision shows that animals sensitive to the ultraviolet spectrum are scared by suspended high voltage power lines which appear as flashing lights in the sky. Animals generally avoid overhead power lines, sometimes by several kilometers. Now there is an explanation for their puzzling behavior. While avoidance of dangerous artificial conditions is a life-saving strategy, it also interferes with normal grazing, reproduction, and migration. Researchers at University College of London Eye Hospital, The Arctic University of Norway, and the University of Oslo carried out the studies. Their findings were published in the peer journal, Conservation Biology. UV light is caused by ionization of the air surrounding transmission cables and is a major source of transmission inefficiency. In dark Arctic winters, a high-voltage power line which does not appear to be a barrier to man can appear as lines of flashing lights reflected and scattered by snow stretching across the entire horizon. Barriers that fragment habitat can affect the growth, viability and genetic diversity of entire animal populations. A plan is proposed to build a 186 mile long power line in northern Norway where the traditional Sami people herd some 220,000 reindeer [photo]. There are now 23 distinct populations of wild reindeer in Norway as a result of human infrastructure such as roads and overhead electricity cables.In 2011 and reported by US Person scientists discovered ultraviolet vision in reindeer that they use to locate food and navigate in a blindingly white landscape. Recently ultraviolet vision has been detected in a wide range of species from household cats to reindeers, and scientists now think such vision may be widespread in the animal world. So far 35 species have been found to be sensitive to UV radiation and many of those are suffering from fragmentation of their habitat by human infrastructure. While burying electrical cables would be wildly expensive and probably unnecessary to reduce adverse environmental impacts, shielding cables with nonconductive material could be a possible solution to the newly discovered animal superpower.