Alpine Chamois: Confusion in Management

Going it alone is unfortunately commonplace in a united Europe — and it took more than the Covid-19 crisis to make that clear.

This also applies to the handling of wildlife that is under special EU protection. A prime example of this is the Alpine chamois. It is protected under the EU’s Habitats Directive and is additionally listed in the Bern Convention.

The Alpine states within the EU are therefore obliged to regularly survey and assess the condition of their chamois populations. Chamois may only be hunted when their populations are in a favourable conservation status.

Significant Differences in Monitoring

A joint study by the Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung and the International Council for the Conservation of the Alpine Chamois now shows: there are considerable differences between individual Alpine states in the monitoring and management of their shared protected species, the Alpine chamois. “While France, Italy, and Slovenia assess the conservation status of the chamois through extensive monitoring of living chamois populations, Germany and Austria simply report the number of animals shot to the EU,” criticises Hilmar Freiherr von Münchhausen, Executive Director of the Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung. “Data and analyses on the age and social structure of chamois populations are completely disregarded, even though it is precisely this information that characterises professional hunting management.”

The differences become even more apparent when planning hunting interventions: In almost all EU countries, the culling quota is set taking into account biological data such as natural winter mortality; in Bavaria, the culling quota is derived solely from the condition of the forest vegetation. “Bavaria's inadequate implementation of EU requirements culminates in the designation of areas where the Alpine chamois no longer has any closed season at all,” says Münchhausen. Meanwhile, studies by the Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung indicate that chamois populations in Bavaria are being hunted far too intensively. As a result, their conservation status in Germany is unfavourable and the prospects for the future are bleak. The hobby hunters as population control approach fails here too.

The Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung and the CIC therefore call for comprehensive monitoring of chamois in Bavaria, no local extension of hunting seasons, and the designation of areas with hunting bans so that populations can recover at a regional level.

Alpine Chamois in Switzerland

The development of chamois populations in Switzerland is probably the most thoroughly studied compared to other Alpine countries. Looking at the long-term picture, chamois populations — as counted by the responsible game wardens in the individual cantons — appear to have been stable for 40 years. However, there are in some cases marked differences between cantons that cannot be attributed solely to differing methodologies or data collection practices.

Analysis at the cantonal level clearly shows, however, that trends vary considerably across different cantons — regardless of the hunting system in place. Figure 15 from IMESCH (2015) illustrates the trends in detail and identifies the possible causes. In addition to overhunting, diseases, disturbances, habitat loss, and predation — primarily by lynx — also play a role. Methods for population surveys include counts and estimates by game wardens, sometimes together with hobby hunters, but only a few cantons (Valais, Vaud, Schwyz) incorporate additional data collection methods (e.g. cohort analysis).

In the Swiss National Park in Engadin, hunting has been banned for over 100 years, and the chamois population there has remained consistently around 1’350 animals since 1920.