Utah wildlife officials to drivers: Watch out for deer as daylight saving time ends

SALT LAKE CITY — Daylight saving time ends this weekend and researchers have long found interesting trends tied to the century-old habit of moving clocks forward and backward each year.

Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health outlined a few impacts of the practice, including increasing health risks and sleep pattern changes — most of which occur when an hour is lost in March. However, the organization’s article didn’t address wildlife impacts typically associated with the time change.

Saturday marks the final post-6 p.m. sunset until mid-February 2025. The sun will set at 5:21 p.m. in Salt Lake City on Sunday, and earlier in the day over the next several weeks, leading up to winter solstice on Dec. 21.

Deer typically start to migrate into valley community areas around October and November as snow returns to their mountain habitats, says Makeda Hanson, migration initiative coordinator at the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The species is often more active around sunrise and sunset, as well.

“It coincides with mating season and the annual migration of deer. Animals are crossing more roads during the migration, and male deer move around a lot more to find mates,” she said. “It also doesn’t help that the daylight hours are shorter during this time of year, creating lower visibility for drivers.”

There have already been over 7,800 wildlife-vehicle collisions this year, according to the division. Collisions can also be quite costly for drivers and wildlife populations.

In 2022, Utah lawmakers began requiring the Utah Department of Transportation to track wildlife mitigation in its annual reports. Vehicle-wildlife collisions resulted in property damage and medical costs reaching as high as $138 million a year, according to Rep. Doug Owens, D-Millcreek, who sponsored a bill making the change.

UDOT has also installed wildlife bridges, fencing and other infrastructure in some areas to help reduce collisions.

Meanwhile, Utah wildlife officials say drivers should be “especially alert” around sunrise and sunset, particularly this month, and slow down when they see an animal near the roadway.