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- Title
Occurrence and Characteristics of Cut Injuries in Hedgehogs in Germany: A Collection of Individual Cases.
- Authors
Berger, Anne
- Abstract
Simple Summary: The European hedgehog is a protected species, but its populations are declining across Europe. This decline has various causes, such as lack of food, habitat loss and fragmentation or life-threatening injuries caused by human activities. Hedgehog rescue centres increasingly report hedgehogs found with severe cuts, presumably caused by garden tools. Responsibility for hedgehog injuries caused by robotic lawnmowers and possible technical or political solutions to prevent such injuries are currently being discussed between wildlife conservationists, mower manufacturers and politicians. This discussion has so far lacked basic data on the extent of cutting injuries in hedgehogs. In this study, data on hedgehogs with cut injuries were collected throughout Germany in order to gain an impression of where, when and how frequently these injuries occur. The number of reporting hedgehog care centres and thus the number of hedgehogs reported per federal state varied highly. Out of the total of 370 injured hedgehogs reported, at least 60% were found over 12 h after the accident and at least 47% did not survive as a result of the injury. Overall, this study shows that cutting injuries caused by garden maintenance equipment pose an additional lethal danger to this declining, protected wildlife species. The number of European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) is in long-term decline across Europe. Recently, an additional threat to hedgehogs' lives has been cutting injuries caused by garden care equipment, but to date, there have been no reliable data on their spatial and temporal occurrence as well as characteristics such as mortality rate. Usually, found injured hedgehogs are admitted to care centres. In this study, data on hedgehogs with cutting injuries were collected from care centres throughout Germany. Over a period of 16 months, data on a total of 370 hedgehogs with cut injuries were reported by 71 care centres. At least 60% of these hedgehogs were found more than 12 h after the accident and at least 47% did not survive as a result of the injury. The comparatively high mortality rate coupled with a possible high number of unreported cases of hedgehogs with laceration injuries show that these accidents pose an additional, serious danger to hedgehogs, both impacting the welfare of individual animals and having a broader effect on the conservation potential of this species. Moreover, the data collected objectify the current discussion on the need for possible technical or political solutions to prevent such injuries.
- Subjects
GERMANY; HEDGEHOGS; ANIMAL welfare; GARDEN supplies; GARDEN tools; FRAGMENTED landscapes; RESCUE work
- Publication
Animals (2076-2615), 2024, Vol 14, Issue 1, p57
- ISSN
2076-2615
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/ani14010057