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Robot Lawnmowers Are Killing Hedgehogs (wired.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: While Americans still wrangle their overgrown lawns by pushing or riding a lawnmower, many Europeans have handed off that responsibility to robots. These beefy, Roomba-like mowers loop their way around a yard, keeping grass trim and neat. To many of their users, the bots are endearing. Their owners give them names or cover them in decals of ladybugs or bumblebees. But the sentimentality only goes so far, because these blades-on-wheels have also been slicing up something other than grass: hedgehogs.
Erika Heller, a long-time hedgehog advocate with a Swiss nonprofit called Igelstation Winterthur, estimates that nearly half the hedgehogs brought to the group during the last couple years were injured by robot lawnmowers. These injuries include limb amputation, cut bellies, or even scalping. And that's not including the ones that have been killed outright. "The ones that have died we don't see, because they don't get brought here." In the United States, despite a wealth of children's toys and clothing featuring hedgehogs, the only live animals you're likely to see are in the zoo or, more controversially, kept as pets. But in Europe, wild hedgehogs are beloved. They're popular in European folklore; there's even a famous British poem about a hedgehog killed by a lawn mower.
Erika Heller, a long-time hedgehog advocate with a Swiss nonprofit called Igelstation Winterthur, estimates that nearly half the hedgehogs brought to the group during the last couple years were injured by robot lawnmowers. These injuries include limb amputation, cut bellies, or even scalping. And that's not including the ones that have been killed outright. "The ones that have died we don't see, because they don't get brought here." In the United States, despite a wealth of children's toys and clothing featuring hedgehogs, the only live animals you're likely to see are in the zoo or, more controversially, kept as pets. But in Europe, wild hedgehogs are beloved. They're popular in European folklore; there's even a famous British poem about a hedgehog killed by a lawn mower.
before they move up to humans
Are robot lawnmowers actually the popular in Europe? Also, how many hedgehogs get run over by human operators, because to me it seems like robot lawnmowers should be relatively rare even if they are popular. Do hedgehogs not flee from a mower (or what is causing them to get hit) because it stands to reason that if they don't try to get out of the way that humans would probably run over them just as often.
There has to be some basic piece of information that I'm missing here, because this story doesn't seem to make sense to me. I'm not familiar with hedgehogs at all, so maybe they're just stupid when it comes to lawnmowers in the same way that rabbits are when it comes to vehicles at night. Otherwise, this just seems overblown to me.
First the robots came for the hedgehogs, but I did not speak out because I was not a hedgehog.
The fitness landscape is constantly changing, and they are evolving. Their generation times are not long. Pretty soon they will learn to avoid robotic lawn mowers.
Just last week I saw a deer look both directions before crossing the road. Really. The only natural predator left for these rats on hooves are the the genus Automobilia species sedanis, suvis, truckis and truckis. Now they are evolving to avoid them, it is going to be impossible to contain the epidemic.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
When a species has successfully evolved to remain unbuggered and hasn't been buggered at all, it takes quite a few generations to re-start the evolution process....
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
Thank you, Dr. Robotnik! I thought I'd find this farther up...
I know people don't generally care about animals, because people generally consider themselves more important; but I can see that the 'automation' craze is going to be the worse thing for wildlife and pets ever. What is the motivation for an automated car company to spend time tuning their vehicles to avoid animals? It will be loads more difficult than the main objective of avoiding humans, and I am just not confident anything that isn't big enough to harm the vehicle will be noticed at all.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
When windmills were first brought to Ontario, there were a number of bird deaths but after a while these decreased to zero and now you'll see birds fly between the blades of windmills, playing with them. Deer that aren't around humans are easier targets for hunters. Shouldn't the same thing happen with hedgehogs and lawnmowers?
It's a form of (un)natural selection, the hedgehogs's environment has changed and the ones that are more cautious and wary of the lawnmowers will become the ones that survive and move forwards.
When hedgehogs perceive danger they roll up in a ball.
If they evolved to run instead, they might become more vulnerable to predators such as foxes and badgers because they can get past the spines easier.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Why are they only complaining about the autonomous "robot" lawnmowers? A lawnmower pushed or piloted by a human is going to bisect that hedgehog just as much as one driven by a computer. Anyone who's ever piloted a riding mower through tall grass knows that you're not going to see an object in the grass -- whether it's a small animal or an inanimate object (kids toys etc) -- until after the blades have busted it up.
Yeah, but you're not likely to mow your lawn in the dark when Hedgehogs are wandering across them.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Interesting, I didn't know that.
Thank you.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
"In the United States, despite a wealth of children's toys and clothing featuring hedgehogs, the only live animals you're likely to see are in the zoo or, more controversially, kept as pets. But in Europe, wild hedgehogs are beloved."
She really needs to actually visit the United States. I can show her a wealth of what we call prairie dogs, along with the biological equivalent of these "scalpers". We call them, hawks.
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"Adopt the pace of nature: Her secret is patience" -- Ralph Waldo Emerson