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

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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.

A hunter in Montana shot and killed two grizzlies on Wednesday near Seeley Lake in a remote area of Missoula County, Montana. The man says he shot in self-defense after the bears, and another yearling, ran at him and his hunting partner.

Mark Heinz

November 07, 20254 min read

A female grizzly and one of her yearling cubs were reportedly shot and killed by a Montana hunter. The man claimed he shot in self-defense after those bears, and another yearling, ran at him and his hunting partner.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is leading an ongoing investigation of the Wednesday incident, which happened near Seeley Lake in a remote area of Missoula County, Montana.

Grizzlies remain under Endangered Species Act protection in the Lower 48 and may not be hunted. They can, however, be legally killed in self-defense or in defense of others.

State game agencies and the FWS investigate claims of grizzlies being killed in self-defense to determine if the killings were justified.

Mule Deer Carcass Involved

The two hunters, who were not named in reports, told investigators that all three bears started running toward them from about 100 yards away, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP).

The hunters were hiking back to retrieve a mule deer carcass when they encountered the bears along the Pyramid Pass Trail east of Seeley Lake.

“The hunters reported that they yelled at the bears and waved their arms, but the bears continued running toward the hunters without slowing down,” FWP reports. “One hunter shot at and possibly killed two of the grizzly bears, and the third bear retreated towards the mule deer carcass.”

The hunters left the site and immediately reported the shooting as self-defense to FWP.

“The U.S. Forest Service has posted signs at the Pyramid Pass Trailhead to alert visitors of the recent bear activity,” FWP reports.

It was later confirmed that the female and one of the yearlings were killed in the shooting, FWP Missoula Region spokeswoman Vivaca Crowser told Cowboy State Daily.

“The other one (yearling) has not been seen again,” she said.

Triple Bear Attack?

Human-bear conflicts sometimes happen near big game carcasses when grizzlies try to claim them as food sources.

It’s likely the hunters startled the female grizzly, who responded defensively, but might not have been bent on mauling the hunters, bear safety expert Kim Titchener told Cowboy State Daily.

The yearling cubs were probably just following their mother, which is normal behavior for young bears, she added.

“Bear cubs are learning from their mom what to do, and they will absolutely follow her,” said Titchener, founder of Bear Safety and More, an organization that works to mitigate human-bear conflicts in the U.S. and Canada.

“It is very unlikely that a mamma bear and her cubs were actually attacking. It was a mom likely being startled and defending her cubs after being startled by a human,” she added.

A Wyoming hunter who reported a close encounter with a female grizzly on Oct. 15 also said that bear’s cub was with her.

Celia Easton previously told Cowboy State Daily that she was rushed by the female grizzly and her cub while elk hunting near Cody.

She said the mother grizzly bit into one of her boots and pulled it off her foot, and then both bears turned and fled.

Canada Has Busy Year

Hunting season can be a time of frequent bear-human conflicts. Hunters try to move quietly, making it more likely for them to surprise bears.

Meanwhile, bears are in a gorging phase, trying to pack on fat for winter hibernation, and carcasses or gut piles left by hunters can tempt them.

In a case that authorities ruled to be legitimate self-defense, a hunter last month shot and killed a grizzly in the Island Park area of Idaho near Yellowstone National Park.

Things have also been busy in Canada, with several people getting mauled in the past few weeks, Titchener said.

The victims include a man who died of his injuries three weeks after he was attacked, she said.