On November 16, 2024, three lynx will be killed in Graubünden as part of a wolf management program: one adult animal and two young animals.
The official explanation is that the game warden mistook the animals for wolves using night vision equipment. However, the fact that a trained professional was wrong three times in a row, each time misidentifying a strictly protected species, says more about the practices of predator hunting than about an individual error.
The canton and the federal government initially reacted with a classic, internal administrative damage management approach: In December 2025, the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) authorized Graubünden to release two lynx to compensate for the loss and support the genetic diversity of the population. One lynx was to be captured in the Jura Mountains, and a second imported from the Carpathian population. It was a kind of technocratic redress: Native lynx were shot and replaced with foreign ones.
But just a few months later, the tide turns. In February 2026, the regional news program for Graubünden reports: "No lynx release in Graubünden for the time being." The canton puts the project on hold, even though the federal permit remains valid. This isn't because the mistaken shooting was suddenly less serious, but because politically active, farming-oriented circles close to the Swiss People's Party (SVP), where hunting interests play a significant role, are mobilizing forces in parliament.
Political pressure instead of responsibility for a protected species
The reason for the suspension is noteworthy: The canton wants to await the outcome of two pending motions in the Grand Council before releasing the lynx. At least one of these motions comes from the Swiss People's Party (SVP) of Graubünden, led by its first signatory, Reto Rauch, which is demanding a reassessment of the lynx release and is fundamentally opposed to the introduction of further predators. The other motion is a mandate from Gian Andris Derungs, a member of the Grand Council from the center-right of Lugnez.
In the next elections, the electorate can correct this mistake and weaken those forces that systematically block the protection of predators.
In its parliamentary mandate and accompanying communications, the SVP paints a familiar picture: predators as a problem, a threat to agriculture, alpine farming, tourism, and "landscape conservation." It cites a public concern survey indicating that a high percentage of the population perceives predators as an urgent problem and demands that the canton request a new review of the project from the Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU) and refrain from introducing additional predators for the time being.
This politically reinterprets the mistaken shooting of three lynx: the focus shifts from hunting structures, training, or operational practices to the animals themselves. Instead of questioning whether the Graubünden hunting authorities and their armed personnel are even capable of handling protected species responsibly, the debate is reverted to the old bogeyman of "predators.".
The role reversal: from perpetrator to victim
A particularly typical feature of the political staging of hunting is the role reversal:
- The gamekeeper who shoots three lynxes becomes a tragic figure who “exemplarily” turns himself in.
- Lynx, a strictly protected species, are becoming collateral damage in an allegedly necessary wolf management program.
- The hunting structures themselves – shooting orders, night vision technology, political pressure for “regulation” – remain largely untouched.
The legal sanction remains correspondingly mild: a fine for multiple violations of the hunting law and exclusion from wolf hunting. This sends a clear message: three dead lynxes are a mistake, but not a systemic failure.
At the same time, the remedial project, the release of two lynx, is being questioned not for ecological reasons, but for political and hunting-related ones. The message to the authorities is clear: anyone who wants to compensate for predators lost through accidental shootings must expect resistance.
Species protection that only exists on paper
On paper, the lynx is strictly protected in Switzerland. In reality, its protection is apparently only as flexible as the prevailing hunting policy consensus allows. The case of Graubünden illustrates a number of contradictions:
- The authorities present themselves as being friendly to species conservation by planning replacement lynxes, but shy away from consistent implementation as soon as the lobby mobilizes.
- The cantonal decision to halt the suspension does not stem from a professional reassessment, but from partisan political pressure.
- The federal permit remains valid, but its enforcement at the cantonal level is being blocked. Species protection is treated as an optional extra, not a mandatory task.
Meanwhile, the central question remains unanswered: What does it mean for a population when three animals – including young ones – are wiped out in a single operation by the state hunting organization? The discussion prefers to focus on "acceptance problems" and "public concerns" rather than on responsibility, a culture of accountability, and structural consequences within the hunting system.
A lesson about power, not protection
The halted lynx reintroduction plan in Graubünden is less a story about species conservation than one about power dynamics. A canton that initially wants to make a symbolic correction after a massive overshooting of the targets abandons this corrective project as soon as lobbying pressure mounts.
The question of whether the SVP's proposal has already been formally discussed or adopted is almost secondary. What matters is that its mere existence is enough to prompt the canton to put the brakes on. This is the real message to everyone involved with protected species: it's not the protected status that matters, but the political clout of those who feel disturbed by the lynx and wolf.
Anyone talking about lynx in Graubünden today should therefore not only talk about populations, genetics and releases, but also about a hunting system that, despite clear protection regulations, leads to the death of three lynx and ultimately the corrective measure for these killings is politically blocked.
Hobby hunting in Graubünden: A safety risk for animals and people
In Graubünden, over 1,000 fines and charges are issued annually against recreational hunters for violating hunting and firearms laws. With approximately 5,800 licensed hunters in Graubünden, this means that practically one in five recreational hunters is an offender each year; the number of unreported cases remains unknown. This demonstrates that violations of the law are not isolated incidents, but rather a normal part of recreational hunting in this canton.
Research into hunting practices in Graubünden also indicates that up to 1,000 animals were classified as accidental kills in five years, even though the hunting regulations are considered "restrictive." Studies on glancing shots and tracking document hundreds of wild animals with gunshot wounds found dead, and even this is just the visible tip of the iceberg. Analyses by animal welfare and wildlife protection organizations assume that a significant proportion of shot animals are initially only wounded and are found days later or die somewhere in the field. Recreational hunting thus systematically produces animal suffering that is incompatible with the image of supposedly "ethical" and "humane" hunting.
In addition, there is the real danger to people, farm animals, and pets. Documented cases show that recreational hunters repeatedly seriously injure or kill people by shooting at poorly identified targets. Media and police reports record shots fired at agricultural vehicles such as harvesters and tractors, narrowly missing the drivers and passengers. Farm animals and pets such as cows, goats, dogs, and cats are also repeatedly shot because recreational hunters shoot at "presumed game" at dusk or in poor visibility. Thus, not only wild animals but also farmers and the general public are put at concrete risk, while the hunting lobby likes to portray itself as a reliable partner of agriculture.
At the same time, recreational hunting runs counter to modern wildlife and habitat conservation. In Graubünden and other cantons, predators such as lynx and wolf are repeatedly killed "by mistake"; the shooting of the three lynx by a game warden is just one visible example.
Comparisons with cantons without traditional recreational hunting, such as Geneva, show that with professional wildlife management, traffic control, habitat enhancement and fair compensation models, significantly fewer animals can be killed while still controlling wildlife damage.
The annual hunting quotas are enormous: In Switzerland alone, tens of thousands of roe deer, red deer, chamois, and wild boar are shot, along with tens of thousands of foxes and other predators, even though many of these hunting methods are highly controversial from an ecological perspective. A system that results in thousands of legal violations, hundreds of incorrect kills, serious accidents, and the repeated killing of protected predators every year is therefore not an instrument of modern wildlife policy, but rather a safety and animal welfare problem.
