Recreational hunters like to blame predators for the decline of hedgehogs and ground-nesting birds. This dossier shows what research demonstrates about human-made dangers to wild animals.

Editorial team Wild beim Wild · 26 October 2026

Wild animals fact-checked: human-made dangers

f FacebookX Twitter✉ Email💬 WhatsApp🔗Link

GGoogle Source

Save as a source! 🔥

Photo: Simon Infanger / Unsplash

As of 26 October 2026.

• Robotic lawnmowers and garden tools
• Leaf blowers and leaf vacuums
• Mowing meadows and embankments
• Fences and electric netting
• Road traffic
• Light at night
• Fireworks
• Glass
• Insect decline
• How we work with studies

Hedgehogs, amphibians, birds and insects do not disappear on their own. A large share of the dangers wild animals face today are human-made: garden tools, machines on meadows, fences, roads, light, noise and glass. This dossier collects studies and official figures on what these factors demonstrably cause, and assesses where the findings are strong and where data are lacking.

This page complements our study dossier «Hunting Fact-Checked», which deals with the consequences of recreational hunting. Both topics are connected: when recreational hunters justify the Fox hunting by citing the protection of hedgehogs, ground-nesting birds or brown hares, they ignore what research shows about the actual causes of the decline. In classifying the hedgehog as “near threatened”, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) cites intensive agriculture, roads and urban sprawl, not predators. More on this in the dossier “Recreational hunters regulate, not predators”.

Robotic lawnmowers and garden tools

Hedgehogs do not reliably flee from robotic lawnmowers; many freeze or curl up. Rasmussen et al. (2021, Animals) tested 18 robotic lawnmower models in collision tests with dead hedgehogs. None detected the smallest juveniles under 200 grams, and with larger animals detection only occurred after physical contact. Some models caused serious injuries, while others left no injuries. A follow-up study by the University of Oxford involving 19 commercially available models reached the same conclusion: with one exception, all devices had to touch the hedgehog in order to notice it.

Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) analysed 370 reported cases of cut injuries to hedgehogs over 16 months, caused by electric garden tools, primarily robotic lawnmowers. 47 per cent of the animals did not survive. String trimmers and brush cutters are also dangerous: according to the experience of the Igelzentrum Zürich, it actually receives more hedgehogs with string-trimmer injuries than with suspected robot injuries.

Relevance to Switzerland: The hedgehog is on the Red List and is Animal of the Year 2026. A night-time ban on robotic lawnmowers, as exists in Cologne and other German cities, does not exist in Switzerland. In Bern and St. Gallen, corresponding motions failed; in Basel-Stadt a motion is pending. Background: Robotic lawnmowers kill hedgehogs: German cities ban night-time operation, Bern and St. Gallen wave it away.

Leaf blowers and leaf vacuums

There is as yet hardly any research on leaf blowers that quantifies direct losses of animals. The British insect researcher Simon Leather found no study measuring this in a literature review. By contrast, the importance of the leaf layer is well documented: it serves as winter quarters, a food source and a hiding place for insects, spiders, worms, amphibians and hedgehogs. Anyone who blows or sucks it away removes this habitat.

Research on mowing shows how severely suction technology affects small animals: in a study by Hemmann et al. (1987), around 84 per cent of the bugs and larvae recorded were killed or injured by suction mowers at roadsides, and about half by the finger-bar mower (overview in van de Poel and Zehm). The Swiss Animal Protection STS warns that leaf vacuums can fatally injure animals, and points to noise levels of 90 to 120 decibels, as loud as a chainsaw.

On wildbeimwild.com: Leaf blowers drive hedgehogs from their homes, Leaf blowers belong in the scrapheap and Leaf piles for biodiversity.

Mowing meadows and embankments

Solid research exists on mowing, including from Switzerland. Researchers from Agroscope and ETH Zurich (Humbert et al. 2009, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment) evaluated how mowing techniques affect fauna. Depending on the machine, roughly a tenth to a third of the small animals in an area die in a single mowing pass. If the entire hay harvest, including tedding, windrowing and loading, is taken into account, losses among grasshoppers were 65 to 85 per cent (Humbert et al. 2010). Mower-conditioners increase the damage considerably.

For amphibians, cutting height is decisive: at 7 to 8 centimetres, 24 to 27 per cent of the animals were killed or injured, at 11 to 14 centimetres only around 3 per cent (Classen et al. 1996). All figures come from the overview by van de Poel and Zehm, which also points out the small sample sizes of individual studies.

Fences and electric netting

Electric netting and poorly maintained fences become traps for hedgehogs, amphibians, roe deer, red deer and birds. Animals get tangled in the mesh, hedgehogs bite into live wires, and amphibians receive fatal shocks in damp grass. In Grisons, 73 cases of entangled wild animals have been recorded so far in 2026. There is no nationwide statistic on fence victims.

Take action: Our petition “Pasture nets must not be death traps for wild animals” calls for a removal obligation, inspections and strand fences instead of netting. For cantonal parliaments there is the template text «Animal-welfare-compliant fencing and electric netting requirements».

Road traffic

Grilo et al. (2020, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment) estimate that on Europe’s roads around 194 million birds and 29 million mammals are killed every year. The researchers found particularly high collision rates for blackbirds and hedgehogs. For rare species with low population density, even a small number of accidents can accelerate local extinction.

Link to recreational hunting: In its report on autumn wildlife accidents, Mobiliar also names hunting-related stress as a contributing cause. More on this: Autumn wildlife collisions: hunting stress also named as a contributing cause and Clock change: why the week after 25 October is dangerous for wild animals.

Light at night

A study by the University of Bern shows that artificial light disrupts nocturnal pollination. Knop et al. (2017, Nature) studied meadows in the Bernese pre-Alps. On meadows with LED street lamps, insects made 62 per cent fewer nocturnal flower visits than on unlit areas. The cabbage thistles on illuminated meadows produced around 13 per cent less fruit. According to the University of Bern, daytime pollinators cannot make up for this loss.

Fireworks

Hoekstra et al. (2023, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment) used weather radar in the Netherlands to measure how birds react to New Year’s Eve fireworks. On New Year’s night, on average 1,000 times more birds were in the air than on ordinary nights. The effect was strongest within the first 5 kilometres, and up to 10 kilometres away at least ten times as many birds were still flying. Larger birds such as geese and ducks climbed to hundreds of metres in altitude and stayed airborne for up to an hour, in the middle of winter, when every energy reserve counts.

Relevance to Switzerland: On 29 November 2026, Switzerland votes on the fireworks initiative. Background: Fireworks initiative on 29 November: what’s at stake for wild animals and Fireworks bans in Switzerland.

Glass

Glass surfaces are among the biggest causes of death for birds in built-up areas. Loss et al. (2014, The Condor) estimated 365 to 988 million birds per year dying from building collisions in the USA. For Switzerland, the Swiss Ornithological Institute in Sempach assumes millions of birds per year. There is no exact Swiss figure.

Insect decline

Insects are the food base for hedgehogs, birds, bats and amphibians. Hallmann et al. (2017, PLOS ONE) documented a decline of more than 75 per cent in the biomass of flying insects in German protected areas over 27 years. The measurements were taken in protected areas, that is, precisely where conditions should be at their best. The authors suspect the main cause lies in the intensive agriculture surrounding the protected areas, for instance through pesticides.

How we work with studies

For every claim we give the source and, where possible, the original study. Where we rely on review articles, we say so. The strength of the evidence varies: there are robust studies on robotic lawnmowers, mowing, roads, light, fireworks and glass. For leaf blowers, measurements of direct losses are lacking, and for Switzerland systematic figures are missing on almost every topic, such as statistics on fence victims or on hedgehogs with cut injuries.

This page is updated on an ongoing basis. We welcome tips about new studies.

Related posts

• Robotic lawnmowers: Motion calls for night-time ban in Basel-Stadt
• Robotic lawnmowers kill hedgehogs: German cities ban night-time operation, Bern and St. Gallen wave it away
• Gardening Season: Tips for protecting wild animals
• Hunting fact-checked: effects on wild animals, ecology and society

By Randy Zellers·News·October 25, 2026Save Official PDF

Wetland habitat, waterfowl hunting opportunities likely decreased by extended drought – Pine Bluff Commercial

Fourteen months of drought have taken their toll on Arkansas’ wetlands, and the effects will be felt much more by waterfowl hunters as the first segment of Arkansas’s duck season begins Nov. 21.

Although the season is a month away, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Director Doug Schoenrock is preparing commissioners and the hunting public for an uncharacteristically dry season.

“We’re still more than a month away until duck season opens, but we need to talk now to prepare you and our hunters about the effects of this prolonged drought on both public and private land,” Schoenrock said at the agency’s Oct. 7 committee meeting in Little Rock. “Much of Arkansas is more than 20 inches behind in cumulative rainfall totals. That sort of deficit doesn’t disappear after a few 1-inch rains.

“The AGFC is monitoring conditions and making sure the information across all of our wetland-focused wildlife management areas is available for everyone to see, but it’s largely in the hands of Mother Nature,” Schoenrock said. “Hunters may need to temper their expectations with the forecast we’re getting for the beginning of duck season.”

Low-Water Woes

David Luker, AGFC assistant chief of wildlife management, presented the hard facts about the lack of water.

Support Local Journalism

Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1881.

Subscribe Today

“At the beginning of October, we had adequate water to flood only 42 percent of the moist-soil units we manage on AGFC-controlled land. Those numbers will drop as long as this drought continues,” Luker said.

Jeffrey Cothren, AGFC Wetland Habitat Program coordinator, gave a little more detail on those numbers, and the outlook isn’t promising.

“The 71 units that still have some water to flood total about 4,627 acres, but we currently have the capability to flood only 42 huntable moist-soil units, which is 3,553 acres; 2,020 of those acres are at Steve N. Wilson Raft Creek Wildlife Management Area,” Cothren said. “Even then, the best-case scenario for that area is to have 34 permit hunt locations available by Christmas, and that’s with us pumping water from the White River 24/7, which has already started. Even with the drought, staff have created some of the best moist-soil vegetation that I’ve ever seen and they should be proud of that effort; we just need the water to flood it for the ducks.”

Even some of the areas with dedicated water in AGFC-owned lakes are feeling the heat. Lake Charles, which feeds greentree reservoirs in Shirey Bay Rainey Brake in northeast Arkansas, is currently only 4.5 feet deep as land managers begin making decisions about this year’s flooding capabilities.

“The lake was already 4 feet below normal pool last year before flooding the GTRs and still has not recovered. It’s now more than 8 feet below normal pool. The water left isn’t sufficient to flood the GTRs, and we would almost certainly collapse the existing fishery for little to no benefit to waterfowl or duck hunters. We have decided that we will not use water from the lake to flood the GTRs until the lake recovers.”

The same scenario is playing out at Harris Brake Lake and Harris Brake WMA in the Arkansas River Valley. The GTRs on Harris Brake Lake take a large volume of water to flood because the depth of the main channels in the system is well over 10 feet in some places. All of the channels must fill before the water overtops the banks and floods these GTRs.

Harris Brake Lake is currently 2.5 feet low; using the remaining water in the lake would cause major damage to the fishery and provide little, if any, wetland habitat for waterfowl or hunters.

One of many pumps at the Wrape Plantation on George H. Dunklin Jr. Bayou Meto WMA in Humphrey has been pumping for days to flood the excellent stand of millet in that rest area. (Special to The Commercial/Jeffrey Cothren/Arkansas Game and Fish Commission)

The Problem With Pumping

Hunters desperate for a solution often ask why the AGFC doesn’t simply “turn on the pumps” to add water to these wetland areas. The answer to that question is complex, but it ends with a simple reality: “You cannot pump water that isn’t there.”

According to Luker, roughly 95 percent of the AGFC’s artificially flooded wetlands rely on rainfall and surface water. Some are filled by gravity-fed canals connected to nearby lakes, but many must have water transported using relift pumps placed in rivers, streams, and ditches.

After 14 months of drought, most of these water sources have run dry or are too low to draw from using current infrastructure. Pumps that can be used have begun pumping already, and the agency has invested in more portable pumps dedicated to Cypress Bayou, Prairie Bayou and Steve N. Wilson Raft Creek WMAs.

Staff are also working with the local irrigation district at Ed Gordon Point Remove WMA to procure additional water through a dedicated canal leading to the WMA, but the availability of water through that means is limited as well.

Groundwater is not the solution, either. Pumping a few 40-acre fields is much different than supplying the massive acreage required to flood the land the AGFC controls. Furthermore, the reduction in rice acreage across Arkansas this year has greatly reduced the amount of water available on a landscape level needed to provide ducks and other waterfowl energy during their migration.

“Pumping from the ground for wildlife causes a litany of issues, including the reduction of the water table farmers and cities depend upon,” Schoenrock said. “And the volume of water needed during this drought overcomes what we can responsibly pump. We’ve run pumps on Lake Ashbaugh in Northeast Arkansas nonstop for the last 16 months, and the amount of water lost to evaporation and seepage there still leaves that lake incredibly low. We’re at the point where the pumps installed last year have already been worked to death from constant use. Ashbaugh is providing some habitat, but it’s not sustainable at this rate if we don’t get help from rain.”

Cothren explains that a few wells exist on WMAs, but the volume of water needed to flood the surrounding areas using wells would take months and could be surpassed by one or two well-placed rains.

“We have already initiated pumping on most of the small areas where we have groundwater available, but it’s not a long-term solution,” Cothren said.

Universal Issue

The issue isn’t solely a public land problem. Private leases and hunting clubs are also suffering from a lack of moisture.

“I spoke to David Graves in our Private Lands Habitat Division, who coordinates the Waterfowl Rice Incentive Conservation Enhancement program, and he said that only five to 10 of the 47 hunt locations enrolled for this year currently have adequate surface water available to flood,” Luker said. “Of the 4,569 acres enrolled in the program, 967 are Wetland Reserve Easement acres; only about 100 acres of that can be flooded with the water currently available to those landowners.”

All rice fields and WRE acreage enrolled in the WRICE program have strict requirements to use only surface water for flooding, ensuring that most of the water table underneath these areas is reserved for drinking water and agricultural use.

“Even with that, the water table is so low right now that I recently spoke to a farmer who said he dug 9 feet deep before finding soil that had any moisture content,” Luker said. “There are a lot of farmers in some of these drought-stricken areas who are experiencing dry wells and surging pumps because the water level of the aquifer has taken such a hit during the last year and a half.”

Rice Sparse

According to the 2026 Prospective Plantings Report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, rice acreage in Arkansas dropped from over 1.1 million acres to 851,000 acres. This is the first time since 1983 that rice acreage dropped below 1 million acres. Rising fertilizer and fuel costs, combined with lower market price estimates, drove many rice producers to pursue lower-cost alternatives such as soybeans and corn.

“Water across the Arkansas landscape is needed to meet habitat needs for migrating waterfowl and shorebirds,” Luke Naylor, AGFC chief of wildlife management, said. “We work with a lot of native vegetation and other food sources on public land to give a complete package of nutritional needs, but rice production and flooded rice fields have always been key drivers of duck numbers and are essential to their energy needs during migration and winter. We should expect lower duck numbers statewide and tougher hunting conditions as duck season begins. That said, timely winter rains can turn this around, given that much less water is needed to provide at least temporary habitat and hunting opportunities on rice fields.”

Watching Water

The AGFC has a set of tables dedicated to keeping the public informed about planned operations for the moist-soil units and greentree reservoirs it operates to benefit wetland habitat. Visit www.agfc.com/wetlandmanagement to learn more and see updated tables of wetland conditions and flooding plans for this winter.

Visit https://www.agfc.com/education/arkansas-waterfowl-rice-program-wrice/ to learn more about the WRICE program and track hunt locations available for the 2026-27 duck hunting season. Each hunt location will be evaluated weekly and will only be entered into the draw if enough water is present to offer waterfowl habitat and hunting opportunity.

Randy Zellers is an assistant chief of communications with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commiission.

Correct the commission spellingFix inconsistent season timing

October 26, 20262 min read

Trending

1Suspect named after ‘altercation’ at East Liverpool High School football game2Columbiana outlines plans for new city hall complex3REAL ESTATE4Six area football teams extend seasons5THE COURTS6Columbiana County Health District approve first reading of food service fees7Person seriously injured during ‘altercation’ at East Liverpool football game

view more

SALINEVILLE — The Ohio State Trappers Association is hosting a free Trapping Workshop Friday and Saturday, Oct. 31 and Sunday, Nov. 1, in the wildlife office at the Highlandtown Wildlife Area, 16760 Spring Valley Road. The workshop is open to adults and children and will include classroom instruction, demonstrations and hands-on field work. Sign-in begins at 9 a.m. on Saturday. Sunday’s session begins at 8 a.m.

There is no fee to attend but registration is required. To register, contact Vern Snyder, at 330-692-6299. Snyder, who has over 30 years trapping experience, is the lead instructor for the workshop.

Organizer Buddy Bricker, who is a member of the Ohio State Trappers Association and the Leetonia Sportsman Club, said the workshop is one of 14 to be held across the state during October and November. He said the courses are taught by experienced trapping instructors who will discuss trapping history and regulations. Participants will also get hands-on experience and instructions on setting traps in the field.

“The presenters have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with anyone who has interest in learning to trap. No previous experience is necessary,” Bricker said. “So bring some boots and let’s hit the trap line!”

Saturday’s itinerary includes in-class education and an opportunity to complete the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s Trappers Education Test to become licensed to take furs in Ohio. During the afternoon session, participants will go to the field to learn to set water and land traps.

On Sunday, participants will check traps and learn how to process furs.

Anyone with additional questions is asked to contact Eric Freeland, Ohio State Trappers Education