Drones save 6,000 young deer from mowers

A comfortable spot, but beware of industrial lawnmowers. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

A Swiss drone-flying association has said it managed to locate and rescue double the amount of fawns this year compared to 2022.

Each spring, many deer hide their new-born in long grass, where they are safer from natural predators. However, this puts them danger of farmers mowing their meadows.

The “Saving Fawns” association thus brings together volunteer drone pilots to fly over the fields with thermal cameras to locate the low-lying animals.

+ Read more: Swiss drones to the rescue!

This year’s rescue operations were notably boosted by new influxes of trained pilots, the group said on Tuesday. Between January and April, numbers of volunteers increased by a third, which allowed the group to widen the area surveyed from 68 to 86 hectares.

Overseeing a meadow in canton Bern: the white dot in the middle of the screen is a fawn. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

On average around 1,500 fawns fall victim to mowers each year, but the number of unreported cases is likely to be significantly higher, the association said.

Roughly 100,000 people in Switzerland fly drones. Just over half of them have so far complied with new rules brought in this year to register with authorities.