Swiss hunters shot almost 100,000 wild animals last season

Wild animal populations stable despite hunting. Keystone-SDA

Switzerland's 30,000 hunters shot almost 100,000 wild animals last season. According to the new hunting statistics, both the kill rate and wild animal populations have remained fairly stable.

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According to figures released by Wildlife Switzerland on Wednesday, around 76,000 wild ungulates and almost 22,000 carnivores were shot in 2023. The latter include red foxes, badgers, pine martens and stone martens.

While roe deer and chamois populations have remained stable across Switzerland, red deer and ibex populations are trending upwards, the press release continued.

However, because wild animals are difficult to count and their populations depend on numerous factors, “no reliable conclusions can be drawn about the status of wild animal species” on the basis of hunting statistics alone.

Wildlife Switzerland keeps the federal hunting statistics on huntable, protected and foreign mammals and birds on behalf of the Federal Office for the Environment.

The data on populations, kills, deaths and causes of death are collected by the cantons and are important for their wildlife management. The hunting season lasted from April 1, 2023 to the end of March 2024 in most cantons.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

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