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.

Comments

They have to practice on something

[FFOMelchior]

before they move up to humans

Re:They have to practice on something

[ShanghaiBill]

My neighbor has one, and they are slow, with small blades, and little power. The risk is way less than a human controlled powered lawn mower kicking up rocks or debris. I can't imagine it injuring anyone unless they purposely went up to it and stuck their toes into the blades, and that would be difficult since the blades are not exposed.

The low power is not a problem: it can just take longer, since no human time is involved. It will periodically return to the docking station to recharge.

I use a much better solution: I replaced my lawn with gravel, desert shrubs, and cacti. No grass to mow, and a 75% reduction in my water bill.

It is how it always begins

[Comrade Ogilvy]

First the robots came for the hedgehogs, but I did not speak out because I was not a hedgehog.

Re:How much of an issue is this really?

[Vulch]

Hedgehogs are nocturnal. Humans mowing lawns tend to do so in daylight so few problems, but I suspect people may set the robot mowers to run overnight when the hedgies are out and about foraging.

Re:How much of an issue is this really?

[Oswald McWeany]

So the lawnmower won't cut the lawn when it is 96-100 degrees?

To be fair, neither will I.

Re:Won't Hedgehogs learn to stay away?

[Oswald McWeany]

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.