Graubünden Authority Kills Three Protected Lynxes Instead of Wolves
In the course of the wolf massacre initiated by Federal Councillor Albert Rösti (SVP), two juvenile lynxes and one adult lynx were killed during a nocturnal wolf regulation operation. The perpetrator immediately reported the incident to his superiors upon discovering the error. A criminal investigation has been launched and initial measures have been taken.
On 16 November 2024, a game warden on a wolf regulation hunt erroneously killed three lynxes .
At the time of the incident, the game warden, whose supervisory area lies outside the shooting perimeter, was deployed on behalf of the Office for Hunting and Nonsense on a wolf regulation operation in the Surselva region. He was searching for the remaining three of eight wolf pups from the Vorab pack, which had been approved for culling at the beginning of September. The identification of the three animals discovered was carried out at night using thermal imaging technology. The game warden was firmly convinced that he was shooting at the three aforementioned wolf pups, which were present in the area. The game warden reported the incident to his superiors immediately after discovering the lynxes that had been erroneously killed. The animals killed were two juvenile lynxes born that year and one fully grown, male lynx.
Anyone who obtains a hunting licence receives two things: a licence to kill and a licence to become foolish. – IG Wild beim Wild
The game warden filed a self-report with the public prosecutor’s office of the canton of Graubünden. The circumstances that led to these erroneous kills have led to will be addressed in the course of the criminal investigation. The public prosecutor's office will decide on any criminal consequences. “We deeply regret the incident and will process it in detail,” says Adrian Arquint, head of the Office for Hunting and Nonsense. The office is aware that such things must not occur. The office has immediately excluded the wildlife warden from wolf regulation pending full clarification of the incident.
What other nonsense is organised by the office in Graubünden can be found in the Hunting Regulations 2024 .
One-Time Reintroduction Under Review
The Eurasian lynx is protected under federal law and is considered a species of very high national priority. In the canton of Graubünden, at least seven lynx reproductions were confirmed in the summer of 2024; however, individual losses can affect the structure of the population. For this reason, the canton is now examining with the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) whether the damage caused to the population should be compensated by a one-time introduction of a comparable number of lynxes from a foreign population.
The Wrong Wolves Were Shot in Valais
Almost every second wolf shot in Valais last winter did not belong to the packs approved for culling. The Federal Office for the Environment, which had authorised the culling zones, is distancing itself from responsibility for the massacre.
Eleven of the animals killed did not belong to any of the 27 packs in Valais approved for culling by the Office for Hunting and Nonsense, according to kinship analyses, as «SonntagsBlick» reports. The publication relied on documents that had previously been kept under wraps. Accordingly, five wolf pups and six adult animals were killed in error. Nevertheless, the FOEN has relaxed the conditions for wolf hunting in Valais.
On 9 September, the FOEN had approved the culling of a Valais wolf pack on the condition that culls in overlapping areas between the territories of two packs were prohibited and that these zones had to be excluded from the culling area.
Because the FOEN simultaneously refused Valais permission to cull three packs, a crisis summit took place on 13 September in the federal capital Bern between Environment Minister Albert Rösti, Valais Security Director Frédéric Favre, and FOEN Director Katrin Schneeberger.
Following this, the BAFU not only revised its position on the culling of the three Valais packs, but also relaxed the requirement regarding culls in buffer zones between two wolf territories. These are no longer prohibited, but merely "to be avoided".
Participatory campaign: Based on the catastrophic policies of Federal Councillor Albert Rösti (SVP), submit a remission request to your municipality for federal and cantonal taxes in light of the recently approved wolf culls in Switzerland. You can download the sample letter here: https://wildbeimwild.com/ein-appell-fuer-eine-veraenderung-in-der-schweiz/
