Game warden shoots golden jackal in the canton of Schwyz
First golden jackal sighting in Central Switzerland: game warden shoots the protected animal in the district of Einsiedeln.
This is the first sighting of such an animal in Central Switzerland.
On 23 March 2016, the wildlife authority was notified that an emaciated fox had been seen in the district of Einsiedeln, barely able to move. The game warden killed the weakened animal, and subsequently discovered that it was in fact a golden jackal.
Why was the golden jackal not taken to a wildlife rehabilitation centre or given some other form of assistance, asks Wild beim Wild – because you shoot first and identify the target afterwards? What kind of game wardens?
Winter conditions had taken their toll on the animal
Golden jackals are larger than foxes but smaller than wolves. This was the first confirmed sighting of a golden jackal in the canton of Schwyz, the Department of the Environment announced.
Thomas Fuchs, head of the Office for Nature, Hunting and Fishing in Schwyz, was unable to provide further details about the animal when asked. He believes that the harsh winter conditions had taken their toll on the golden jackal.
Golden jackals originate from the Middle East and have been spreading westward for years. For a long time, populations were confined to the Balkans. Around the turn of the millennium, the first individuals appeared in Hungary, Lower Austria, and Styria. They are a medium-sized member of the canine family, sitting between the fox and the wolf in size. In Switzerland, animals were recorded using camera traps in northwestern Switzerland in 2011 and in Graubünden in 2015. During the winter, a golden jackal was accidentally killed by a recreational hunter in Graubünden (Wild beim Wild reported).
Golden jackals are protected in Switzerland
The killing confirmed that the golden jackal was spreading naturally from southeastern Europe and could also migrate into Switzerland, the Department of the Environment announced. In terms of protection, the golden jackal has the same status as the lynx, the wolf, or the bear.
The golden jackal is more robust and longer-legged than the fox. Its tail is shorter and less bushy and has a black tip. The coat color varies depending on the habitat and ranges between golden yellow and gray. In addition to insects and fruit, the golden jackal feeds on small and medium-sized vertebrates. Goats and sheep were not typically part of its prey, writes the Department of the Environment.
Wild beim Wild has filed a criminal complaint.
Related dossiers and articles:
- Dossier: The Wildlife Warden Model
- Dossier: Hunting Laws and Oversight
- Dossier: Hunting and Animal Welfare
- Dossier: Hunting and Biodiversity
- Dossier: Red Lists Switzerland
- Get Involved
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland we document cases, legal questions and recurring patterns. 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.
