Overview
- At Steinsee near Moosach, a volunteer team used a thermal drone at daybreak to find two fawns and secured them before mowing began at 9 a.m.
- Pilots flew slow grid patterns about 50 meters up, flagged hot spots on-screen, and confirmed each one by switching between thermal and normal video.
- Ground helpers could not see the animals in tall rye, which showed why aerial thermal scans at first light are key when the field is still cool.
- Handlers wore gloves rubbed with grass to hide human scent and kept the fawns in covered laundry baskets until the cut was done, then checked from a distance that the mother returned.
- Elsewhere, Jagdverein Hubertus Witzenhausen runs dawn missions with Luftfahrtbundesamt‑licensed pilots and reports last year’s 60 flights saved 52 fawns and two red deer calves.