The Kitzretter project in Waldeck-Frankenberg, Germany is saving many baby deer from an early death and using fieldmargin to help co-ordinate their work.
Every year tens of thousands of fawns are inadvertently killed by harvesting equipment while they’re hiding in tall grass. The problem is that the deer often hide their fawns in tall fields near the edges of forests to protect them from natural predators. When the fawns believe that a predator is approaching their instinct is to lie very still in order to hide, rather than to run away.
The death of a fawn is not only a traumatic experience for the animal, mowing a fawn is also a psychological burden for the farmers. This project works on over 150 farms and the collaboration between volunteers and farmers is invaluable to its success. Last year, they helped to clear 4,500 hectares. You can read more about the project on the website.
The project uses fieldmargin to map grassland on their farms and plan the perfect positioning of the devices that they are using for their work. The devices use acoustic and optical signals which makes the doe believe that the meadow is unsafe so that she will lead the fawn out of the dangerous zone.
“The device has a radius of 100m, so we are using the features function to measure and plan the right positions. That said, you have to know the area yourself as well, because a hill or a valley impacts how the sound and light will travel. Making notes and sharing details is really valuable”
Kristin Nebel, Kitzretter project
“fieldmargin is a real asset to this work which makes it a lot easier to plan our missions and coordinate 250 devices. It also lets us adjust and evaluate our missions and to inform and communicate with farmers more efficiently.”
Kristin Nebel, Kitzretter project
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