A real animal tragedy occurred on a railway embankment in Groebenzell.
At least four hedgehogs, which were probably already in hibernation, were literally shredded during a mowing operation.
Animal rights activists are horrified.
Groebenzell
- It must have been a few days.
The mulched grass is already brown.
Walkers have now made a gruesome discovery among the shaved tufts of grass.
On the ground they found the torn remains of several hedgehogs.
How many of the spiny animals lost their lives on the embankment is not entirely clear.
The bodies are too disfigured.
Horror at the federal nature conservation
Ariane Zuber, local chairwoman of the Bund Naturschutz, is appalled.
In her opinion, the area should have been searched before mowing.
In addition, the mowing was practically level with the ground.
Now there is no longer any protection for animals.
The killed spines were "really fat hedgehogs".
So you would have had a good chance of getting through the winter.
As Zuber explains, hedgehogs usually go into hibernation when it has been below six degrees Celsius for several days in a row.
This is mostly the case at the end of October.
It is not yet clear who is responsible for the Igel massacre.
The district office has not yet issued an opinion.
It is also not yet clear who owns the area.
A response from the railway to a corresponding Tagblatt request is still pending.
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This is where the tragedy happened.
© Private
For Ariane Zuber, the loss of the hedgehogs killed is also so painful because the population of the animals is shrinking.
Since 2017, they have even been on the red list for warning, explains the animal rights activist.
The red list shows those animal species that are threatened with extinction.
Even robotic lawn mowers endanger hedgehogs
Today, hedgehogs are not only threatened by cars, but also by the increasingly popular robotic lawnmowers, explains the Naturschutzbund Deutschland, or NABU for short.
The robotic lawn mowers then approach the animals almost noiselessly.
The hedgehogs do not react to danger by fleeing, but curl up in a ball and freeze for a few minutes.
Their spines protect them from numerous predators, but not from cars or the knives of the robotic lawnmower.
Young animals in particular are repeatedly injured by the robotic lawnmowers, then retreat into a bush and die in agony there.
(sus)
