Grisons hunting 2026/27: incidents, violations and developments at a glance

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Wild beim Wild is documenting the 2026/27 hunting season in Grisons on an ongoing basis. The ticker features official notices, incidents, violations, kills and other notable occurrences – updated chronologically.

Wild beim Wild editorial team — 5 September 2026

Grisons Hunting 2026/27: All Incidents in the Live Ticker

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Grisons hunting season 202627 the incidents at a glance

Grisons is entering the 2026/27 hunting season with 4,616 planned red deer kills and the third proactive wolf regulation in a row.

Just how deeply hobby hunting is culturally rooted in Grisons is shown in the article The psychology of hobby hunting in the canton of Grisons..

Ticker

05.09.2026
SAT 08:05

Silencers banned – unless they come in handy: Grisons’ hunting rules contradict themselves

In Grisons, night vision and thermal imaging devices are in principle banned for hobby hunting, silencers require a permit, and luring hoofed game is prohibited. Yet those very limits fall away the moment they suit the canton: for the night hunt on wild boars in the Mesolcina, thermal imaging technology is relaxed; for wait hunting on the fox, there is no luring ban at all; and the carrion bait site with animal bait remains permitted, while baiting red deer is prohibited. The same goes for mobile phones, which the official catalogue of examination questions once expressly banned for hunting purposes: today a clear wording is missing, even though it is precisely real-time coordination by mobile phone that can turn an entire hunting party into a tracking group. The contradiction becomes clearest in an admission from within their own ranks: the low hunt on fox, badger and hare, of which wait hunting forms part, was described by the former Grisons association president Robert Brunold himself as «not necessary, but justified». A set of rules that organises an unnecessary hobby hunt down to the last detail protects no wild animals – it administers a hobby. More on this in the detailed article.

04.09.2026
FRI 06:46

AJF co-head justifies wolf kills – but is a hobby hunter himself

Adrian Arquint, co-head of the Office for Hunting and Fishing, defends the third wolf regulation as proportionate: falling numbers of livestock killed are supposedly proof that the kills work. In fact, the predation rate was already declining before preventive regulation was introduced in 2023, largely thanks to expanded herd protection. His own office is moreover applying for the complete removal of the Calderas pack, while Arquint simultaneously claims the aim is to act «without wiping out entire packs». Particularly telling: Arquint is himself a passionate hobby hunter and closely intertwined with the cantonal licence hunters’ association. The fate of the Grisons wolves is therefore not decided by an independent wildlife authority, but by an office management with a personal interest in hunting roe deer and red deer, the wolf’s natural competitors for food. More on this in the detailed article.

04.09.2026
Fri 05:35

Five myths fact-checked: what the Grisons hunting interview leaves out

At the start of the season, the new licence hunters’ president Benjamin Hefti and a cultural anthropologist paint a conciliatory picture of hobby hunting in the «Südostschweiz». The fact check takes apart five central claims: the formula «Bio Bio Plus» for game meat is hunting marketing, not proof of quality; according to the WHO’s cancer research agency, processed game meat counts as a Group 1 carcinogen. The regulation argument regarding red deer is a circular one, because the decline in the population coincides in time with the return of wolf and lynx. Over 1’000 charges and fines are brought against Grisons hobby hunters every year. And the low hunt of fox, badger and hare was described by the association’s own former president Robert Brunold himself as «not necessary, but justified». More on this in the detailed fact check.

02.09.2026
Wed 06:08

War in the forest: it is not hobby hunting that adapts, but everyone else

From September into winter, hunting takes place in Grisons, yet the annual safety advice is not aimed at hobby hunters but at hikers, bikers and dog owners, who are the ones expected to adapt. Former association president Robert Brunold himself described the low hunt as «not necessary, but justified», an admission that licence hunting is not about ecological management but about a leisure interest. A former head of the cantonal hunting office openly said that it is «a particular pleasure» to shoot an animal «that you know». Twice the Federal Supreme Court had to correct Grisons politics, because the government and parliament had wrongly declared hunting-critical popular initiatives invalid; in one case an exonerating FOEN statement was even withheld from parliament. More on this in the detailed article.

01.09.2026
Tue 08:30

4’616 planned red deer kills: the canton fails to prove the necessity

For 2026, Grisons plans to kill 4’616 red deer. The figure is communicated transparently, but that does not make it proof of ecological necessity. The special hunt in late autumn is not an exception but a firmly planned second instrument, applied as soon as the high hunt falls short of its targets. During the 2022 high hunt, roughly one in ten kills involved an animal that was not permitted for hunting. At the same time, the canton acknowledges that wolf and lynx reduce calf mortality, yet continues to classify the decline in the population it manages as a success of hobby hunting. More on this in the detailed article.

28.08.2026
Fri 14:30

Third wolf regulation despite halved livestock kills: shooting in advance

From 1 September 2026, the FOEN is authorising kills in twelve wolf packs in Grisons, with the Calderas pack to be removed entirely. By the end of July, livestock kills had more than halved compared with the previous year, yet the quota is still being exhausted to the maximum: animals are no longer killed because damage has occurred, but before any damage could occur. Only three days earlier, the canton had celebrated the confirmation of three «new» packs which in fact merely recolonise the territories of packs previously wiped out. The same contradiction is evident across Switzerland: despite 226 wolves killed in three regulation periods, the number of packs has continued to rise, from 35 to 40. More kills, more packs, no effect in the sense claimed. More on this in the detailed article.

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