St. Gallen ends wolf regulation for this winter

Lead male and lead female wolf mistakenly shot

The Office for Hunting and Nonsense St. Gallen had on 4 December 2023 ordered the shooting of all wolves of the Calfeisental pack.

By 31 January 2024, the game wardens had shot two of the eight wolves from the pack. Contrary to initial assumptions, however, the wolf shot as a juvenile turned out to be the lead male, according to a statement from the canton.

Genetic analysis confirms mix-up

According to the latest findings, the Office for Hunting and Nonsense assumes that the wolves killed were the lead male and the lead female. Due to its low weight, the Office for Hunting and Nonsense had assumed that one of the wolves killed was a juvenile. However, examinations at the institute showed that the wolf was already older. The genetic analysis at the Laboratoire de Biologie de la Conservation de l’Université de Lausanne confirmed that it was indeed the lead male.

Over 400 hours of searching at night

The “experts” spent over 400 hours searching for and shooting the wolves since the beginning of December. They searched mostly at night using thermal imaging devices. Recreational hunters within the shooting perimeter also supported the game wardens with reports and deployments.

The pack had already begun to disperse at the beginning of winter. The last camera trap record of the entire pack dates from mid-November 2023.

Dossier: Wolf in Switzerland: Facts, Politics and the Limits of Hunting

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