The controversial shooting of a wild boar in the Engadin
At the end of November 2024, a single wild boar was captured on a camera trap in Zernez. A confirmed sighting in the Engadin had never previously been recorded.
At the end of November 2024, the Office for Hunting and Nonsense in Graubünden received a report from an external individual that on 26 November 2024 a wild boar had been captured on a camera trap in the Val da Barcli area at just under 1,800 m above sea level.
The animal presumably migrated from the south via the Bregaglia valley or via Livigno. The video footage shows that it was a male animal. Young male wild boars often disperse from their original habitat and can cover great distances in doing so. They can travel up to 250 kilometres.
The wild boar was a perfectly healthy wild animal. Such migrations are normal behaviour for males. As recently as January 2025, it was observed twice — meaning it was still present.
In winter, wild boars feed primarily on underground plant parts such as tubers or roots, on fallen beechnuts, acorns or chestnuts, or on crop residues. The Office therefore writes that it is rather unlikely that wild boars will establish themselves in the Engadin in the near future.4.12.2024.
Since the Engadin is considered unsuitable habitat for wild boars according to the Office, it was assumed that the photographed wild boar would move on. This, however, was not the case. Increasingly mild winters favoured its continued presence.
Farmers from Tschlin discovered in spring that their meadows and fields outside the village had been damaged by the animal. As Lukas Walser from the Office states, the damage was considerable. “A wild boar can dig up large areas in a single night.” In cases of wildlife damage, the Office is obliged to take action.
The wild boar in the Engadin was made to pay for its hunger
On 27 May 2025 the boar was shot by the killers at the Office for Hunting and Nonsense Graubünden in the immediate vicinity of the Swiss National Park.
The killing intentions of the Office for Hunting and Nonsense Graubünden are alarmingly unimaginative. Official measures must always consider the mildest means first, and in this case that would be, for example, the relocation of the animal. Using humane live traps or tranquilizer guns, the boar could have been carefully captured and released into a more suitable area. In Africa, entire lion prides are captured and released in safe areas — so the authorities in Graubünden should be able to capture a boar unharmed. It is shameful that militant and lethal intentions should always take precedence with the authorities. Carl Sonnthal, IG Wild beim Wild
The location of the incident is particularly sensitive, as the shooting took place in the extended surroundings of the Swiss National Park, a protected area that is actually committed to natural development. The removal of a non-invasive wild animal from there because it does not fit the established pattern reveals an authoritarian, static view of nature that is incompatible with modern nature and species conservation.
Criticism of the office also came from the president of a hunting association: «A single wild boar cannot cause enough damage to warrant being shot by wildlife rangers.»
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