Valais: Hobby Hunters Kill the Wrong Wolf
Wildlife wardens in Valais shot a wolf that had not been approved for culling — and that belonged to an entirely different pack.
A wolf shot by wildlife wardens in Valais was not the animal they believed it to be. The wolf had been killed in mid-March in the Val d’Hérens and should never have been approved for culling.
Age analysis revealed that the male removed on 17 March had been in its sixth year of life and did not belong to the Val d’Hérens pack, according to the Valais Cantonal Office for Hunting, Fishing and Wildlife (DJFW).
Difficult to distinguish
Despite all the precautionary measures taken during the cull by professional wildlife wardens, the male therefore did not fall into the category of individuals that were permitted to be removed, the statement continued. This demonstrates how difficult it is, when carrying out regulatory culls under the applicable legal framework, to determine with certainty which individual is to be killed.
Genetic analyses also showed that a young female wolf shot on 5 March 2022 had been in her second year of life and belonged to the Val d’Hérens pack. She had furthermore been pregnant.
Eleven sheep killed
Under the revised ordinance to the Federal Hunting Act (JSV), the number of individuals that may be killed must not exceed half the number of pups in the pack. The regulation of the Val d’Hérens pack had, according to the statement, been ordered on 30 August 2021. The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) had previously given its approval and confirmed, on the basis of cantonal monitoring, the presence of a pack with five wolf pups.
The wildlife wardens therefore had until 31 March 2022 to kill two young wolves. In the Val d’Hérens, eleven sheep had been killed in a protected situation.
