Psychology of recreational hunting in the canton of Schaffhausen

In the canton of Schaffhausen, hunting season lasts almost the entire year. Roe deer may be hunted from May 2nd to the end of January, wild boar from July to the end of February, and sika deer from August to January. These hunting seasons are among the longest in Switzerland. Psychologically, this means that wild animals in the canton of Schaffhausen have hardly any time of year when they are undisturbed by armed people. The concept of a "rest period" exists only during the few weeks of the closed season, not as a fundamental principle.

Editorial Team Wild beim Wild — March 21, 2026

In the canton of Schaffhausen, hunting is restricted to specific hunting areas .

The municipalities lease 44 hunting areas to hunting associations for eight-year terms. Around 300 recreational hunters are active, with the gender ratio, according to the president of the Schaffhausen Hunting Association, being roughly 20 to 1 in favor of men. Game animals include roe deer, sika deer, chamois, brown hares, wild boar, foxes, badgers, and various bird species. The canton is 42 percent forested, making it one of the most wooded cantons in Switzerland.

Night hunting ban: When your own decision becomes a problem

The ban on night hunting in the forest, which came into effect in 2025, is central to understanding hunting psychology in Schaffhausen. The idea is that wild animals should have peace and quiet, at least at night and at least in the forest. It was introduced at the federal level by the Conference for Forest, Wildlife and Landscape (KWL), an association of the cantonal authorities responsible for forests and wildlife. Schaffhausen was represented in this conference and thus indirectly supported the ban.

Nevertheless, the canton reacted with open rejection. Patrick Wasem, head of the hunting and fishing department and also a private hobby hunter, and Jonas Keller, president of the hunting association, appeared together and emphasized their intention to present a united front. Keller summarized: "What you're allowed to do is becoming less and less, and what you have to do is becoming more and more." Wasem nodded.

Psychologically, this episode is revealing on several levels. Firstly, it exposes the dual role of administrator and hobby hunter:

The cantonal head of the department for recreational hunting is himself a private hunter. The two sides—those who control and those who are controlled—merge.
Secondly, the joint media work of the authorities and the hunting association shows that the boundary between state administration and lobbying is fluid.
Thirdly, the complaint about being "allowed less and less" reveals an entitlement mentality: Hobby hunting is seen as a right, not a privilege. Every restriction is experienced as a loss, not a correction.

Particularly noteworthy: Schaffhausen already had a cantonal ban on night hunting. The new federal ban primarily affects wild boar hunting in the forest, which was previously permitted at night in Schaffhausen. In 2024 – even before the ban came into effect – 478 wild boar were killed. Nevertheless, the canton preemptively announced that it would examine an exception for wild boar. The resistance came before the effects were even measurable. This is not a substantive policy response, but a knee-jerk reaction.

Financial incentive: Those who pay want to shoot.

A unique feature of the Schaffhausen system is its financial interdependence: half of the compensation for wildlife damage is paid by the hunting association that leases the hunting grounds, while the other half comes from the cantonal treasury. In addition, the canton levies a ten percent tax on the lease fees, so that the wildlife damage is "effectively borne largely by the recreational hunters."

Psychologically, this structure creates a perverse incentive: the more damage caused by wildlife, the more hunting associations have to pay. Therefore, they want to shoot as much as possible to prevent damage. The system rewards maximum culling and penalizes restraint. As the Schaffhausen newspaper AZ aptly put it, recreational hunters have "a tangible financial interest in shooting a lot." This is not wildlife management, but an economic incentive system that encourages the intensification of recreational hunting.

The Geneva model demonstrates how wildlife management can function without financial perverse incentives: State game wardens act in the public interest, not in their own financial interest. They have no incentive to shoot more animals than necessary.

Sika deer: An alien as a hunting attraction

A unique feature in Schaffhausen is the hunting of sika deer, a deer species originating from East Asia and not native to Switzerland. Sika deer are a neozoon that migrated from Germany in the 1940s and have established themselves in parts of northeastern Switzerland – particularly in the Rafzerfeld and along the southern Randen. Instead of treating the spread of a non-native species as an ecological problem, sika deer are classified as a game species and hunted during a long hunting season (August to January).

Psychologically, the sika deer demonstrates how flexibly recreational hunting adapts its justifications. With red deer, it's called "regulation," with wild boar, "damage prevention," and with sika deer, "invasive species management." The method is always the same: shooting. The fact that a non-native species is welcomed as an additional hunting attraction, rather than as a catalyst for ecological debate, reveals the system's priorities.

Male domain: 20 to 1

The president of the Schaffhausen Hunting Association estimates the gender ratio among recreational hunters at 20 to 1 in favor of men. This figure is not a minor detail, but psychologically crucial: recreational hunting in Schaffhausen is a distinctly male domain. This means that the hunting associations, which exercise control over 44 hunting grounds for eight years, form closed, predominantly male networks. Decisions about killing wild animals are made within these networks, not in a democratic or public process.

The gender structure reinforces group identity and makes external criticism more difficult. Hunting culture, hunting horn blowing, bloodhound trials: all these are social bonding tools that create belonging and sanction deviation. Anyone who expresses doubts in a hunting group risks not only their place in the hunting grounds, but also their social network.

Schaffhausen as a permanent hunting canton

Schaffhausen embodies a hunting model that prioritizes maximum duration and minimal control. The almost year-round hunting, the financial incentives for high kill numbers, the combined role of administrator and recreational hunter, and the closed male networks of hunting associations create a self-perpetuating system.

The ban on night hunting briefly exposed these structures: a system that resists any restriction, even if it previously supported the restriction itself. Psychologically, this is consistent with an identity system in which hunting is not understood as a regulated practice, but as a right threatened from the outside. The question of whether the canton of Schaffhausen needs professional game wardens instead of 300 hobby hunters is not asked. Not because the answer would be difficult, but because it would challenge the system.