Hunt-free Geneva combats wild boar population

Geneva's wild boars will have to stay on their toes to avoid being shot Keystone Archive

Geneva, the only Swiss canton where hunting is banned, says it must cull two-thirds of its population of wild boars.

“Things have got out of hand,” says Gottlieb Dandliker, Cantonal Inspector for Fauna.

The problem of the burgeoning wild boar population is not confined to Geneva, or to Switzerland. For the past 20 years, it has been a Europe-wide phenomenon. But Geneva offers an interesting model for the management of this species.

“Just because hunting is banned, it does not mean that there isn’t regulation of the animal population,” says Robert Cramer, the cantonal environment minister.

Despite its reputation as a small city-state, half of Geneva’s surface area is countryside, a considerable part of which is forest.

Pilot scheme

The canton is serving as a pilot scheme for a new national programme designed to manage the wild boar population. It includes a scientific study of the species, measures to prevent damage, cross-border cooperation and culling based on an ongoing census.

“We are under pressure from the agriculture sector on one side and from the animal protection lobby on the other,” Dandliker says.

“Our solution is to be very open about what we are doing. Both sides now realise that it is not acceptable to wipe out the wild boar population, nor can it be left unchecked,” he told swissinfo.

Since 1974, when hunting was banned in a cantonal referendum, many different species – including foxes, hares and crows – have had to be culled because their numbers were placing an excessive burden on the local ecosystem or causing too much damage to crops and private property.

Adaptable

Wild boars are omnivorous and exceptionally adaptable. Their natural predators – the lynx and the wolf – are scarce or non-existent in Switzerland. If they struggle to find food in their natural woodland habitat, they will venture onto agricultural zones.

It is estimated that wild boars have caused over SFr 600,000 worth of damage to crops in Geneva this year. In terms of surface area, wheat fields, cornfields and pasture have been worst affected.

But Geneva’s wild boars have developed a taste for the canton’s grapes, and in terms of cost, it has been the vineyards that have been hardest hit. The cost to wine producers has been put at SFr 370,000.

But the problem does not stop with the devastation of cultivated land. Wild boar are responsible for an increase in the number of road accidents. No fewer that 40 collisions between wild boar and vehicles were registered last year in the canton.

Geneva’s task has been made more difficult by the fact that these intelligent animals realise when they are being hunted and, during the hunting season in neighbouring canton Vaud and France, many cross the border to find sanctuary.

Drastic measures

Although it is difficult to give an exact figure, the wild boar population in the canton is estimated to be around 300 animals. If left unchecked, within a year, that figure would rise to 750.

The cantonal forestry service believes Geneva’s woodland can only support a wild boar population of 100 animals. Drastic measures will have to be taken.

But the forest wardens have strict restrictions placed upon them. They only cull at night – so as not to endanger the public – and they only shoot animals that are on cultivated land.

Wild boar are intelligent creatures, often led by a matriarchal sow, and it is hoped that they will quickly learn to stick to the forests.

“There has to be a balance between the animals and the environment in which they live,” Cramer, a member of the ecologist party, explains.

Imbalance

“We are now in a situation where there is such an imbalance that the wild boars can no longer live in the forests. They go onto farmland and cause great damage, they go onto the roads, and create a danger. We have to try and find the balance again,” he told swissinfo.

Cramer says that there is also the fear that with a large wild boar population, disease like swine fever will spread more quickly.

The task of forest management bodies in other cantons is not made easier by the fact that hunting is allowed. As well as looking after the fauna, they also have to manage the hunters.

There is a strong feeling in Geneva that the countryside is for every citizen of the canton to enjoy, and if hunting were allowed, tens of thousands of people would be deprived of this for several weeks every autumn.

by Roy Probert