Drones save Rehkitz in Pinkafeld: Technology helps save life!

Drones save Rehkitz in Pinkafeld: Technology helps save life!

in Pinkafeld, Burgenland, Austria, a fawn was saved on June 20, 2025 by the targeted use of drone technology. The incident began as a resident a whopping noise on a meadow next to his house and then the Pinkafeld volunteer fire brigade and a local hunter alerted. During the subsequent examination, the emergency services found a dead wet mother while the fawn had disappeared. The alarm team, consisting of five trained drone pilot: inside and other members of the fire brigade, was able to start a large search thanks to a drone with a thermal imaging camera.

After around two hours of intensive search, the fawn was finally discovered in a trough in the high grass. The hunter caught the fawn carefully and took it into her care. This assignment impressively demonstrates the effectiveness of modern technology and the important cooperation between the population, fire brigade and hunters.

drones as a lifesaver

The use of drones for fawn rescue is increasingly popular, since these animals often hide in the high grass and have no special escape instinct. In Germany, an estimated tens of thousands of fawns are killed by mowing work every year, which underlines the need for effective rescue measures. The technology has proven to be remarkably efficient: an investigation by the Boku Vienna proves that drones find fawns 1.32 times better than traditional search methods, while on average they can drove a hectare 12.24 times faster than a person could ever do without technical support.

The thermal imaging cameras of the drones cancel the body temperature of the fawn from the ambient temperature, which makes it visible in the thicket of the grass. After the localization, the fawns found are marked and brought to safety in a protected place near the original location before the Mahd begins. Clear communication between the drone pilot, the farmers and the hunters is essential to ensure a smooth process.

regulations and relief for drone flights

In order to support the use of drones in agriculture and animal welfare, the Federal Ministry of Digital has issued a temporary regulation that has been valid since 2024. This change has the goal of facilitating the rescue of young wildlife, such as fawns, and allows drone inserts near buildings under certain conditions. Under the new regulation, the minimum distance to residential areas was reduced to 10 meters, which significantly simplifies use. Over 90 percent of the previously limited areas can now be used for drone inserts.

The changes apply to drones with a start mass between 250 grams and 25 kilograms, while lighter models are excluded from these provisions. This enables more flexible use of the technology, but operations for sports and leisure purposes remain excluded. In order to promote the purchase of drones with thermal imaging cameras for animal welfare measures, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture has created additional incentives.

The successful rescue operation in Pinkafeld is an impressive example of how modern technologies can support animal welfare and shows the gratifying cooperation between technology, fire brigade and hunting society.