Research Projects

Deer often lay their fawns in meadows to hide them from predators. In case of imminent danger, young fawns do not flee, but hide instinctively in the tall grass. During mowing, this often means death for the fawns. One method to prevent this is to set up “scarecrows”. For this purpose, wooden posts are placed in the meadows to which rustling plastic bags are attached. Thereupon, doe bring their fawns to safety. In practice, there are disadvantages in setting up such “scarecrows”, as it takes a lot of time for farmers to get off the tractor when mowing and remove them. Furthermore, plastic bags that are torn off by the wind are not good for the environment.

Therefore, an environmentally friendly paper stand is to be developed and built as part of the project. This stand must be suitable for being mowed over with the grass and further processed into cattle feed. Furthermore, it must be 100 % biodegradable and have sufficient stability for use in meadows. A prototype has already been developed in a previous project. This is to be further optimized and designed with regard to the forces acting on it.

This Project is supervised by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Samuel Schabel and M.Sc. Niklas Schäfer.