At dawn, when the fog rolls in over the Alpine forests, the Swiss hobby hunter lies in wait, a symbol of a supposedly ancient tradition meant to protect nature and regulate populations. But a closer look reveals that this story is a myth. Modern hunting practices in Switzerland have little to do with nature conservation.
Editorial staff , November 5, 2025
Follow Us
Around 30,000 hobby hunters are active in Switzerland.
They kill over 130,000 wild animals every year: deer, chamois, stags, wild boar, birds, and foxes.
Today’s wildlife populations are a result of human intervention. Recreational hunting doesn’t solve problems, it creates them.
The system of “population control” is in reality a cycle of intervention, overpopulation, and renewed intervention. Hunting strategies ensure that there is always enough game available to meet the culling quotas. This has little to do with natural balance.
In reality, recreational hunting is a multi-million-dollar hobby that costs tens of thousands of animals their lives every year, mostly not out of necessity, but for the thrill of killing. Forests are deliberately “managed” to ensure a sufficient supply of game to guarantee a steady stream of trophies. The supposed “culling plan” serves more to protect interests than to maintain ecological balance.
Hobby hunters claim they must intervene because natural predators are lacking. But these predators are often absent because of hunting. Foxes, lynxes, birds of prey, and wolves continue to be persecuted or hindered in many places, even though they are essential for a functioning ecosystem. Instead, humans create an artificial imbalance, which they then “regulate” with a shotgun.
Deer and stags are made scapegoats for browsing on young trees, a problem that arises primarily in overexploited monocultures, not in healthy mixed forests. And wild boars? They benefit from human waste, cornfields, and mild winters—conditions created by humans themselves.
When nature is allowed to regulate itself
The Swiss National Park demonstrates how wildlife populations develop when humans do not intervene. Deer, red deer, and chamois populations stabilize on their own after a few years, the forest regenerates, and biodiversity increases.
This is confirmed by international research, for example from the Bavarian Forest or Slovenia: In hunting-free areas, wild animal populations are regulated by natural mechanisms: food, diseases, predators.
The wolf as an inconvenient competitor
Since the wolf’s return to Switzerland, one thing is clear: the traditional hunting system is faltering. According to the Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU), dozens of wolves were shot preventively in 2024, sometimes entire packs, often without any demonstrable damage.
Where predators are permitted, wildlife populations and ecosystems stabilize, and nature finds its balance. But instead of allowing this process, the wolf is fought to preserve one’s own “regulatory role”.
Animal suffering behind the term “fair chase”
Many animals flee injured, only to die later from blood loss or stress. Recreational hunting is not a clean, quick death. Many animals flee injured, only to die hours later from blood loss, internal injuries, or stress. Mother animals are also often shot, while their young starve to death. This reality rarely finds its way into the public relations efforts of the hunting community, which prefers to use terms like “wildlife management,” “ethical hunting,” and “animal welfare”—words intended to obscure the true suffering.
“Ethical hunting” sounds noble, but is often a moral cover for systematic animal suffering.
The hunting lobby wields considerable influence in Switzerland. In many cantons, poorly trained amateur hunters sit on hunting commissions, advising authorities and helping to shape legislation.
This was clearly demonstrated in 2020 with the failed revision of the hunting law. The people rejected the relaxation of the shooting rules for wolves and other animals, sending a signal for greater animal and nature conservation.
Nevertheless, several cantons have since relaxed their regulations and are now authorizing “preventive” wolf shootings even before damage has occurred.
More and more people are recognizing that recreational hunting is not a natural heritage, but an anachronism. Scientifically sound wildlife management models have long demonstrated alternatives: natural regulation through predators, targeted habitat protection measures, and non-lethal methods for damage prevention.
Nature conservation means preserving life, not ending it. Those who truly fight for nature do not draw a line between “useful” and “harmful”.
A future without hunting: not a utopia, but a necessity.
The facts are clear:
- Hunting-free zones work.
- Nature can regulate itself.
- Animal suffering is avoidable.
Switzerland could take on a pioneering role with genuine wildlife sanctuaries, scientifically sound wildlife management, and less hunting pressure. Because true nature conservation doesn’t mean ending life, but preserving habitats.
Wild animals need peace and quiet, not bullets.
Recreational hunting in Switzerland is not a contribution to the balance of nature, but a relic from a time when humans believed that only with a rifle could they create order. But nature was in balance long before us, and it will be again when we finally stop acting as its judges.
Today we know better. Modern, ethical wildlife management relies on science, not tradition. Nature doesn’t need recreational hunters; it needs respect, space, and trust.
Exposing the Big Game 