Dead Yaks: Wolf Was Not Involved
Following the death of several yaks in Valais, the wolf was wrongly blamed. The investigation shows that other causes were responsible.
On the evening of 27 June 2022, two yaks were found dead on Mullern and a yak cow suffered a miscarriage.
This indicates an exceptional stress situation. Whether a wolf was involved was to be clarified by an examination of the animal carcasses at the Institute of Fish and Wildlife Health at the University of Bern.
The examination of the carcasses has now shown that the yaks were not killed by wolves — that is, no killing bites were found. The investigation revealed that the yaks had fallen ill and been weakened for unknown reasons.
The DNA taken from the carcasses did not originate from a wolf, and there were no further indications of a wolf presence in the area at the relevant time, such as camera trap images or sightings. The cause of death has therefore been established as illness.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
