¨The young animals hidden in the high grass can be located using drones and thermal imaging cameras.
A four to five day old fawn lies in a field.
Young deer can hardly be seen in the waist-high grass in spring, it is supposed to protect them from predators. If a danger approaches, this does not trigger an escape reflex in them – on the contrary. Their instinct tells them to lie flat on the ground and let the danger pass. Mowing machines often become a death trap for the few-week-old fawns.
In many places in Switzerland, hunters and farmers are therefore working to save as many fawns as possible from being killed by the mower. In the canton of Graubünden, 552 fawns were saved from almost certain death between the end of May and the beginning of July. As reported by the Graubünden Office for Hunting and Fishing, this is 85 more animals than in the previous year.
With drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras, the meadows are first flown over before they are mowed. A total of around 190 pilots have carried out 1700 drone flights. In the coming years, this number is to be increased further if possible – the fawn rescue is to be further promoted with further training courses.
