German Cities Urge Nationwide Night Ban on Robotic Mowers to Protect Hedgehogs

Overview

• The German Association of Cities called for a nationwide night curfew on robotic mowers to protect nocturnal wildlife that now rely on urban gardens.
• Many municipalities already bar operation from about 30 minutes before sunset to 30 minutes after sunrise, creating uneven rules in places like Cologne, Leipzig, Mainz, Göttingen and parts of Munich.
• Wildlife rescuers describe catastrophic injuries to hedgehogs from mower blades, including 35 cases at the Eppelborn center last year where faces and bodies were badly cut.
• Hedgehogs are listed as “potentially endangered” on the international Red List, and their instinct to curl up rather than flee makes them easy targets for machines that rarely detect small animals.
• The Saarland association of towns and communities warned a nationwide curfew would be hard to enforce because checking private gardens at night is unrealistic.