Robot Lawnmowers Impacting German Hedgehogs
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What impact do robotic lawnmowers have on hedgehog populations?
As you know, we're living in an age of convenience, of smart homes, AI and labour-saving gadgets that promise to do all the hard work for us. And let's be honest, unless you're particularly green-fingered, how many of us really want to head out and mow the lawn every week? Well, if you don't, no problem. There's a solution, a quiet one, the robotic lawnmower. And they're becoming more and more common in gardens here in Ireland and across Europe as people embrace automated living. But, and there's always a but, hedgehogs, once a familiar sight in gardens across Ireland and Europe, are now in worrying decline. Since 2024, they've been listed as near threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List.
after a drop in numbers of at least 30% over the past decade.
What statistics highlight the decline of hedgehogs in Europe?
What's that got to do with the robotic lawnmowers? Well, as this technology quietly gets on with the job, often at night, there's a growing concern about the unintended consequences for wildlife, especially hedgehogs.
What unintended consequences do nighttime mowing robots pose for wildlife?
Now, in Germany, mayors in several cities have even moved to ban the nighttime use of these machines to protect nocturnal animals from being injured or killed. Those moves have been influenced in part by research carried out by Dr. Anne Berger from Germany's Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. We spoke with her earlier.
Hedgehogs are one of the most beloved animals we have here in Europe, but the populations of the hedgehogs, they decline really drastically. We also have investigated what are the reasons for this, and a kind of new threat for the hedgehogs are the so-called mooring robots, and that's why we had some research on this problem with the dilemma with the hedgehogs and the mooring robots.
Now, a mowing robot, for the benefit of the listener, that's never one ever heard of a mowing robot or seen one. I'm sure you've seen on TV the adverts for the robotic vacuum cleaners that go around your house while you're out at the bingo, wherever you happen to be. Well, it's the same sort of thing, only it goes around and cuts your grass while you're not there or while you're otherwise occupied. So that is an issue. God, I hate to say it. Is it killing the hedgehogs? What's it doing exactly?
Yeah, the problem with the mowing robots is what you already said, that they often work without any observation from humans, so automatically. They are also allowed to work at night. The hedgehogs are nocturnal animals, then they also curl into balls. And they are threatened and they don't run away. And that's really a problem for the hedgehogs because at night when they meet such mobile robots at the meadow, then yeah, it really comes to deadly accidents.
And how many incidents have you had reported or discovered?
I collected in Germany, I collected for 16 months in different hedgehog stations and we reported 370 accidents with injured hedgehogs. The heavy thing was that About the half of these hedgehogs died from these injuries. And also more than 60% of these hedgehogs was the fact that the wound was older than 12 hours, sometimes also older than days.
The wound.
Yeah, the wound. The accident was more than 12 hours ago. So that means that these hedgehogs, yes, suffered for a long time.
Oh, that's terrible. Richard. The fox has many tricks, but the hedgehog has but one. But it is the best of all, said Ralph Waldo Emerson. Now, that trick of curling into a ball and siege medieval siege animal or something like that has been highly successful. This is a very ancient animal until the arrival of the motor car. And now that has been extended to the lawnmower. What are we going to do to try and stop the slaughter?
So one solution is quite easy for the companies who produce mowing robots and they can program the mowing robot like that they can only work at day hours. It's quite easy and I think maybe every company can program their devices like this but This seems to need some society pressure for the companies that they really do this. This would be one solution that we can avoid most of these accidents.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What impact do robotic lawnmowers have on hedgehog populations?
0:00–0:53
2
What statistics highlight the decline of hedgehogs in Europe?
0:53–1:09
3
What unintended consequences do nighttime mowing robots pose for wildlife?
1:09–8:04
4
What research has been conducted on hedgehogs and robotic lawnmowers?
8:04–12:10