Night hunting and high-tech: the myth of fair hunting

Around 30,000 recreational hunters are active in Switzerland. Many of them now deploy technologies that, just a generation ago, were reserved exclusively for the military and law enforcement agencies: thermal imaging cameras that render the body heat of wild animals visible in complete darkness, night vision devices that allow precise shots without any daylight, drones that track and drive wild animals from the air, and digital calling devices that exploit instincts that are millions of years old.

What the recreational hunting community markets as «contemporary hunting practice» and «efficient wildlife protection» turns out, on closer inspection, to be a system of technological overpowering that strips wild animals of their last remaining refuges: the night, the burrow, the thicket — and finally disproves the narrative of tradition, closeness to nature and «fair hunting».

The Swiss legal situation in this area is a patchwork that is barely controllable: cantons regulate differently, enforcement is structurally almost impossible, and at federal level there is no coherent response whatsoever to this technological arming-up. This dossier documents the facts, identifies the animal welfare problems, and shows why technologically upgraded recreational hunting is the opposite of fair hunting practice.

What awaits you here

• Thermal imaging cameras: How wild animals are tracked down even before dusk, why even the hunting community in Valais called for a ban, and what this says about proportionality.
• Night vision devices: Why the night-time shot is especially problematic from an animal welfare perspective, what injury patterns result, and what happens to wounded animals in the darkness.
• Drones: How drones are used as «beaters from the air», why the canton of Glarus has already taken action, and where the line between fawn rescue and hunting tool lies.
• Digital calling devices: How recreational hunting uses evolutionary instincts as a trap, which devices are freely available, and why the narrative of «fair competition» is being dismantled.
• The Swiss patchwork: Why 26 cantons produce 26 different sets of rules, what the parliamentary response looks like at the federal level, and why enforcement is structurally almost impossible.
• The fairy tale of fair hunting: Why high-tech hunting and »Waidgerechtigkeit« (hunters' code of conduct) are an irreconcilable contradiction.
• What would need to change: Six concrete demands for proportionate regulation.
• Argumentation guide: Answers to the most common justifications of the recreational hunting lobby.
• Quick links: All relevant articles, studies and dossiers at a glance.

Thermal imaging cameras: Driven out of the protection of darkness

The thermal imaging camera has evolved from a specialist tool into a standard piece of equipment for recreational hunting. “Such night vision devices have experienced a veritable boom. Almost every hunting group has one with them. This increases competition among hunters and raises the pressure on wildlife,” says Sven Wirthner of the Valais Office for Hunting, Fisheries and Wildlife. The camera is used to scan hunting grounds for animals even before dusk; the shots are fired at first daylight on the roe deer and red deer identified during the night. Night-time, which is evolutionarily the most important protective zone for wild animals, is thereby systematically eliminated.

Even within the hunting community itself, acceptance of this practice is limited. The canton of Valais banned thermal imaging cameras on the initiative of its own hunters – not because a law required it, but because the pressure on wildlife had become too great. “Animals should also have their chance to escape hunters using their instincts,” is the justification given in Valais. It is remarkable: if the recreational hunting community itself classifies a tool as too effective and therefore unfair, any serious animal welfare discussion ought to take exactly this as its starting point – rather than dismissing it as an isolated opinion.

In the canton of Bern, thermal imaging cameras are legal for observation purposes, as long as they are not used directly as an aid for aiming while shooting. Other cantons have different rules. The result is a technological advantage that, in effect, creates round-the-clock hunting pressure and leaves wild animals with no periods of rest whatsoever. From an animal welfare perspective, chronic hunting pressure is no marginal issue: sustained stress raises cortisol levels, disrupts reproductive cycles, increases the risk of accidents during flight, and weakens the immune system.

More on this: The psychology of hunting and Hunting myths: 12 claims you should scrutinise critically

Night vision devices: when the animal no longer stands a chance

While thermal imaging cameras serve observation purposes, night vision devices and thermal imaging riflescopes go a step further: they enable direct shooting in total darkness. The hunting-law situation here is inherently contradictory. In Germany, thermal imaging riflescopes are permitted as add-on devices in several federal states for hunting wild boar, whereas fully integrated thermal imaging riflescopes remain banned. In Switzerland, cantonal regulations determine what is permitted – with the result that the very same device is legal in canton X and banned in canton Y. In the canton of Appenzell Outer Rhodes, there is an official information sheet that explicitly lists night vision devices as prohibited aids. Other cantons remain silent on the matter.

From an animal welfare perspective, the night-time shot is particularly problematic. Reliably identifying a species using thermal imaging devices is considerably harder in the dark than in daylight, making mistaken kills more likely. The situation is even more serious for animals that have been shot but not killed instantly: the follow-up search can, as a rule, only begin the following morning at the earliest. The injured animal spends hours in its death throes, alone, in the dark, with no possibility of help whatsoever. Wildtierschutz Deutschland states: «Animals shot at night can often no longer be found during the follow-up search – resulting in an agonising death.» This is not responsible hunting practice. This is organised suffering.

At federal level, a motion to ban night vision devices for hunting was submitted in the Swiss National Council. This shows that the problem has reached the political agenda. Nevertheless, a coherent federal regulation is still lacking. The recreational hunting lobby argues that night-vision sighting devices are indispensable for "efficient wild boar regulation". The argument goes round in circles: recreational hunting is itself a major contributor to the wild boar problem it claims needs regulating, by decimating natural predators, and then demands more technology to solve it.

More on this: Dossier Wild Animals, Mortal Fear and Lack of Stunning and Cruel hunting methods – tolerated and promoted

Drones: The "driver from the air"

Drones used in hunting are marketed by proponents as useful for saving roe deer fawns from mowing machines. This is legitimate and, from an animal welfare perspective, to be welcomed. But the use of drones as an active hunting tool is an entirely different category. In the canton of Glarus, the cantonal government has stated that drones can be used as a "driver from the air", that they "directly disturb" wildlife, which violates fair chase principles, and has called for a review of the hunting regulations. This is a remarkable admission: the state recognises that drones in hunting are problematic – but fails to act.

Drones enable the systematic tracking, flushing out and directing of wild animals from the air. For the animals affected, this means yet another element of total surveillance of their habitat: no thicket offers safety any longer when a drone is circling above it. Roe deer and their fawns in particular, which instinctively "freeze" when in danger – remaining motionless in tall grass or undergrowth – are especially exposed to drones. This freezing behaviour, an evolutionary protective strategy, is specifically exploited and rendered worthless by drone hunting.

The Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) regulates airspace, but not the detailed use of drones in hunting. The German Hunting Association has recommended that its members not use drones to drive or disturb wildlife – but this is not a binding restriction. It is left to the recreational hunters' own sense of responsibility not to misuse a technology that gives hunting an overwhelming advantage. The history of hunting technology shows that voluntary restraint cannot be relied upon.

More on this: Hunting in Switzerland Dossier: Fact Check, Types of Hunting, Criticism and Alternatives to Hunting: What Really Helps, Without Killing Animals

Digital Lure Calls: Deception as a System

Digital lure calls imitate the sounds of prey animals, conspecifics, or young animals in distress with high precision. They are played through Bluetooth speakers and can attract animals from hundreds of metres away. The fox that follows a digital mouse's death cry has no way of recognising that it is a trap. The roebuck that reacts to the cry of a fawn in distress, wanting to protect its young from supposed danger, is killed at precisely the moment it acts on its protective instinct. This is not hunting on equal terms. It is the systematic exploitation of instincts that are millions of years old and were never designed to withstand a loudspeaker.

In Switzerland, the use of sound devices to lure wild animals is banned in many cantons, but barely enforced. Digital lure call devices with hundreds of stored animal sounds, including the calls of protected species, are freely available online. Checking whether a recreational hunter is using a digital lure call out in the field is practically impossible. What isn't monitored, happens.

The recreational hunting lobby justifies digital lure calls as a «nature-close instrument», arguing that hunters have always used lure instruments. The comparison doesn't hold up: a hand-blown leaf instrument requires skill, produces a limited sound range, and is anything but precise. A digital device with a GPS speaker and 300 stored animal sounds in HD quality is the very opposite of closeness to nature. It is the use of consumer technology against animals that stand no chance of telling the difference.

More on this: Hunting myths: 12 claims you should scrutinise critically and Recreational hunters and their delight in animal cruelty

Switzerland's Patchwork: Regulation Without Enforcement

What particularly distinguishes Switzerland when it comes to hunting technology is the complete lack of regulatory consistency. Cantonal sovereignty over hunting law means that up to 26 different regulations can exist for the same technology across 26 cantons. Thermal imaging cameras are banned in the canton of Valais on the initiative of recreational hunters themselves, permitted for observation purposes in the canton of Bern, and not mentioned at all in other cantons. Night vision devices are explicitly listed as prohibited aids in Appenzell Outer Rhodes, while legislation in other cantons remains silent on the matter. Digital lure calls are banned in some cantons, tolerated in others, and entirely unregulated elsewhere.

Enforcement is structurally almost impossible. Game wardens are thinly spread, hunting grounds are vast, and the darkness in which night hunting takes place offers recreational hunters additional cover. Checking whether a shot was fired at night using a thermal imaging scope is practically impossible without a real-time recording of the offence at the scene. The result is a legal situation that exists on paper but, in practice, effectively tolerates technological escalation.

At the federal level, a motion has been submitted calling for a ban on night vision devices for hunting. It remains to be seen whether parliament will act. As long as there is no nationwide regulation, the protection of wild animals from technological overpowering remains dependent on the goodwill of individual cantonal associations. That is not a system. That is chance.

More on this: template texts for hunting-critical motions in cantonal parliaments and Dossier: Hunting in Switzerland

The Fairytale of Fair Chase

Recreational hunting publicly justifies itself through tradition, a connection to nature, and the principle of giving game a fair chance. The term «Waidgerechtigkeit» (fair chase ethics) is central to this: it suggests a respectful approach to wild animals, an ethical stance that distinguishes recreational hunting from mere intent to kill. The technological reality disproves this narrative on every level.

Thermal imaging cameras allow animals to be tracked down even before daybreak, stripping them of the night as a place of refuge. Night vision devices enable shots to be fired in complete darkness, turning follow-up searches into hours-long death throes. Drones flush game out of safe hiding places for which there is no evolutionary defence strategy. Digital lures exploit protective instincts and mating reflexes that are hundreds of thousands of years old. Not a single one of these tools has anything to do with tradition or a connection to nature. They all have one thing in common: they maximise the advantage for humans and reduce the wild animal's chance of survival to zero.

The canton of Geneva has shown since 1974, and Luxembourg since 2015, that wildlife management works without any form of recreational hunting. Anyone who hunts animals with military technology has forfeited the right to invoke tradition and fair chase.

More on this: Geneva and the hunting ban: 50 years without recreational hunting and Hunting ban Switzerland: Why an end to recreational hunting is overdue

What needs to change

• Federal ban on thermal imaging scopes and night vision devices for recreational hunters: Technological development has outpaced the cantonal patchwork of regulations. A ban on thermal imaging scopes and night vision devices anchored at federal level would create a uniform, nationwide basis and enable enforcement.
• Clear legal definition of drones as a prohibited hunting aid: Drones used to track down, flush out or drive game must be classified as prohibited aids under hunting law, at federal level.
• Nationwide ban on digital lures: The use of digital sound devices to lure wild animals must be banned throughout Switzerland. There is no need to stop online trade in such devices, but their use on public and private hunting grounds must be made a punishable offence.
• Mandatory reporting of night-time kills and follow-up searches: Every kill carried out at night must be reported, including the start of the follow-up search and its outcome. This would, for the first time, make it possible to statistically record the true extent of animals that die without being found.
• Mandatory training for the use of new technologies: Anyone wishing to use thermal imaging devices for observation, where permitted, must provide proof of training in safely identifying animals. This would reduce mistaken kills of protected species.
• Transparency obligation for the hunting lobby:Manufacturers and dealers of hunting technology must be obliged to report sales figures to the authorities. Only in this way can the spread of new technologies be regulated in a timely manner. Template motions: Template texts for hunting-critical motions and Parlament.ch: Motion to ban night vision devices for hunting

Talking points

«Thermal imaging devices make hunting safer because they prevent mis-kills.» The opposite has been proven: determining the species and sex of an animal at temperatures close to zero, where thermal signatures are similar, is prone to error. Moreover, the supposed precision encourages shots that would not be risked in daylight. Wildtierschutz Deutschland documents increasing mis-kills of protected species involving the use of thermal imaging devices.

«Night hunting is necessary to regulate wild boar populations.» The claim that more kills would permanently reduce the wild boar population is scientifically untenable. Studies show that wild boars compensate for losses through increased reproduction. The actual cause of the wild boar pressure – intensive agriculture, maize monocultures, the lack of predators – is not eliminated by night hunting but merely concealed.

«Drones save fawns – surely that's a good thing.» The use of drones to save fawns from mowing machines is explicitly to be welcomed. That does not change the fact that the same technology is used as a hunting tool to flush out and drive game. Defending both at the same time is a double standard at the expense of wild animals.

«Hunters have used digital lure calls before too – this is nothing new.» A mouth-blown roe deer call and a Bluetooth speaker with 300 stored HD animal sounds differ so fundamentally that the comparison does not hold. The decisive difference is not the intention but the effect: digital lure calls are so precise and far-reaching that the animal has no way of recognising the imitation. This is not traditional craft, but the use of technology against an animal that is structurally at a disadvantage.

«Recreational hunting regulates itself – Valais proves it.» Valais proves the opposite: self-regulation only worked once the pressure on wildlife was already so high that the hunters themselves reacted. Relying on voluntary restraint without a legal framework is irresponsible from an animal welfare policy perspective.

«Technology is value-neutral – it depends on how it is used.» Technology is not value-neutral when it creates asymmetric power relationships. Between a wild animal reliant on evolutionary instincts and a recreational hunter equipped with a thermal imaging scope, a drone and a digital lure call, there is no longer any contest. There is an execution.

Quick links

Articles on Wild beim Wild:

• Cruel hunting methods – tolerated and promoted
• Recreational hunters and their delight in animal cruelty
• Hunting and animal cruelty
• Switzerland hunts, but why still?
• Initiative calls for «Game wardens instead of hunters»
• Zurich: first canton to ban alcohol for recreational hunters
• template texts for hunting-critical motions in cantonal parliaments

Related dossiers:

• Hunting and Wildlife Diseases
• Night Hunting and High-Tech Hunting: How Thermal Imaging Cameras, Night Vision Devices, Drones and Digital Lure Calls Expose the Myth of Fair Chase
• Hunting Dogs: Use, Suffering and Animal Welfare
• Lead Ammunition and Environmental Toxins from Recreational Hunting: How a Toxic Legacy Burdens Birds of Prey, Soils and Humans
• High Hunt in Switzerland: Traditional Ritual, Zone of Violence and Stress Test for Wild Animals
• African Swine Fever: How an Animal Disease Becomes a Justification for Recreational Hunting
• Hunting Accidents in Switzerland
• Hunting and Animal Welfare: What the Practice Does to Wild Animals
• Hunting and Weapons
• Driven Hunt in Switzerland
• Wait Hunting: Waiting, Technology and Risks
• Earth hunting
• Trap hunting
• Wait hunting
• Special Hunt in Grisons

Our Standard

Wild animals are not targets. The technological upgrading of recreational hunting is not progress, but a capitulation to the principle of proportionality: what remained as the sole protective zone for wild animals – the night, the thicket, instinct – is being systematically undermined by thermal imaging cameras, drones and digital lure calls. The Swiss legal situation is an uncontrollable patchwork that comes at the expense of wild animals. The recreational hunting community portrays itself as nature-loving and sporting – but anyone who hunts animals with military-grade precision technology has forfeited the right to this narrative. This dossier is continuously updated whenever new data, legal developments or technical trends require it.

More on the topic of recreational hunting: in our hunting dossier we bring together fact checks, analyses and background reports.