Hedgehogs: Scientists create spiky 'crash test dummies' to help protect garden wildlife from robot lawnmowers

Scientists have created 3D-printed hedgehog 'crash test dummies' to help make sure robotic lawnmowers aren't posing a risk to garden wildlife.

The models have been developed by Oxford University researchers, who hope autonomous mower manufacturers will use them to make sure their products are "hedgehog safe" before they hit the market. Made of a soft, rubbery plastic, they are specifically designed to resemble the body composition of a hedgehog. The UK's native hedgehogs are currently listed as vulnerable to extinction on the Red List for Britain’s Mammals 2020, and campaign group Hedgehog Street says numbers have plummeted in recent years - with up to 75% disappearing in some parts of the countryside.

Lead researcher Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen - known on social media as Dr Hedgehog - told SWNS there was an "urgent need to identify and phase out" lawnmowers that posed a threat to the vulnerable species. She said all of the mowers she tested had to physically touch the hedgehog in order to detect it, and some did not detect it at all - running right over it with the blades still going.

The researchers also worked alongside a rehabilitation centre in Denmark to establish how live hedgehogs reacted to a bladeless robotic mower. Each hedgehog was tested twice and tended to act with more caution on their second encounter. "Interestingly, they tended to act more shyly on their second encounter," Dr Rasmussen said. "This is hugely important, since it suggests that hedgehogs may learn from their first encounter with a robotic lawnmower.

"Potentially, if a hedgehog survives its first encounter with a robotic lawnmower, it is less likely to be injured in the future because this may cause it to avoid them," she added. "So, the more hedgehog friendly mowers out there, the more chance there is that the first mower a hedgehog meets is a hedgehog friendly one."

Dr Rasmussen hoped their new standardised safety test would aid hedgehog conservation, by making sure this was the case. Her co-author, Dr Anne Berger, added that cut injuries from robotic lawnmowers were placing an enormous burden on many hedgehog care centres - and the model had the potential to help eliminate a huge amount of animal suffering.

There are a raft of other campaigns and measures underway at the moment, aimed at better protecting the at-risk garden favourites in the UK. A Change.org petition to give hedgehogs better legal protection has now attracted more than 200,000 supporters.

Members of the public are also being asked to help get Hedgehog Street get its new hedgehog friendly fencing campaign rolling - in a bid to make garden fencing with ready-made ‘hedgehog highways’ available as industry standard.