The 2025 Faons rescue in Switzerland ends on an exceptional assessment. The number of young cervids spared during the agricultural mowing period reaches unpublished heights, thanks to mild weather and more numerous farmers to call on volunteer rescue teams.
This spring, no less than 6,451 faes were saved from mower, spraying the previous record of 2023, according to the Swiss Faons Rescue Association published His figures. A meteoric progression, since only 24 faes had been saved in 2015. Ten years later, this number was multiplied by more than 250. The number of rescue missions also exploded: 6,531 volunteer missions were organized in 2025, against 4620 last year and only 35 in 2015.
This success is explained by the mild weather of this spring, but also by the advent, ten years ago, of the drone. Thanks to the use of thermal cameras, the Faons rescue missions have gained efficiency, excluding the previous and ineffective methods, such as the beaten or the lamps installed in the fields.
An unprecedented commitment
The teams that handle these drones to explore the fields are exclusively volunteers. “We are not green or hunters, we are from different environments. It is a question of saving these little animals,” explains Denis Beuhat, a volunteer for the Jurassic association SOS Sauvons les Faons, Sunday in Development.
Farmers are also increasingly engaged in the rescue of faes. They are the ones who summon the volunteer teams on a voluntary basis. Thierry Froidevaux, breeder in the Franches-Montagnes, testifies to the evolution of mentalities: “One year, we had mowed a hare. He was alive, but his four legs were cut. It’s the worst”.
New technology
A promising innovation has emerged for the rescue of faes in recent years. These are infrared sensors, installed directly on the tractors. Unlike drone thermal cameras, these sensors detect color, not heat. This is the immense advantage of this technology: it allows farmers to mow anytime, day and night. Conversely, with drones, the rescue missions are necessarily organized early in the morning and force the farmers to wait before they can mow.
But this new technology has a cost: 20,000 francs in the case of cold Thierry. In Switzerland, only three farmers are equipped with this scope. Thirty others also have it, but on a smaller scale.
Hope for extinction species?
This innovation is promising, especially for animals in danger or in the process of extinction, such as the hare, the lark of the fields or the groan of the Genets. These animals have the distinction of nesting in the fields during the moods, but of being too small to be spotted by drones.
The Doubs regional park carried out a study on existing techniques to save wild fauna during mowing times. She retained fifteen, including drones and these infrared sensors.
Mélanie Kornmayer/Miro
