Hunters’ tall tales on the subject of lynx in Switzerland

According to their own hunters’ tall tales, JagdSchweiz is not opposed to the presence of lynx, wolf and bear in Switzerland, provided these animals migrate in naturally. 

The capture and reintroduction of animals, on the other hand, is something JagdSchweiz fundamentally rejects.

This approach is an unnecessary interference in nature; lynx and wolf are neither domestic animals nor farm animals, but wild animals. Large carnivores, like other protected species — for example the ibex — must be managed sustainably. The strategy of total protection pursued by the federal government to date must evolve into a practical, solution-oriented management strategy. All wild animals are entitled to equal protection. This applies above all to roe deer and chamois, as the primary prey of the lynx. The lynx is today distributed across the whole of Switzerland. In certain regions, such as the Northwestern Alps and the southern Jura, lynx populations are massively inflated. Roe deer and chamois populations have demonstrably declined massively and are no longer able to recover. JagdSchweiz calls on the responsible federal authority to approve cantonal applications for interventions involving damage-causing animals or excessively high populations, and not to block them with excessive, barely surmountable hurdles. writes JagdSchweiz in a press release.

The hobby hunt is primarily an unnecessary and damaging intervention in nature, as we know from hunting-free areas such as Geneva or the Netherlands. Wherever there are no hobby hunters, we find a richer biodiversity. People have a visible added value in quality of life and wildlife enjoys a more species-appropriate existence when their social groups are not shot apart and they are not forced into unnatural nocturnal activity. Indeed, wildlife are not livestock and do not belong to hobby hunters (res nullius).

Wildlife must above all be protected from hobby hunters and their tall tales. It is a natural and dynamic process that local roe deer populations decline and predators consequently seek out new territories.

Obviously, the militant association Jagd Schweiz once again displays extremely serious deficits in knowledge of ecological interrelationships — that is, the relationships and interactions between communities of animals and plants within their habitats. Not a single case is known in which predators have exterminated animal species, in contrast to hobby hunters (hobby hunters then lie as follows: «Roe deer and chamois populations have demonstrably declined massively and can no longer recover«)

By reversing the hunters' tall tale demand made by JagdSchweiz, this means that where roe deer and chamois populations have declined sharply, hunting should no longer take place! The small lynx populations in Switzerland are anything but established across the board. Furthermore, sterilisation or relocation is more ethical and more sensible than shooting, as hobby hunters repeatedly demand.

In 1971, lynxes were reintroduced in the Swiss canton of Obwalden after they had been exterminated by hunters. An estimated two to three hundred lynxes live today mainly in the Swiss Alps and in the Jura. For decades, the lynx has been protected in Switzerland under the Hunting Act. A lynx kills around 50 ungulates per year. During the same period, the approximately 30’000 hunters — mostly for sport — shoot 55’446 roe deer and chamois. Hobby hunters kill around 160’000 mammals and birds per year in Switzerland. Road and rail traffic also claims far more victims among roe deer and chamois than the lynx does.

Only one in four lynxes in the wild in Switzerland lives to be older than two years. A clue about the causes of death is provided by the systematic examination of dead lynxes. It turns out that humans are responsible for at least 60 percent of deaths. In addition to many traffic accidents, poaching in particular is a problem. 21 percent of the nearly 300 animals found dead over the last 40 years had been illegally shot or poisoned. This corresponds to around 60 poached lynxes. In approximately 50 percent of all lynxes that died on roads or railway tracks, shotgun pellets were found in their bodies. The number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher: when Kora conducted research in the Jura, poachers and hobby hunters shot twelve radio-collared lynxes. Ten of these animals would never have been found had they not been carrying a transmitter.