Criminal complaint opened in Switzerland after lynx shooting

Formerly extinct in Switzerland, the Swiss lynx population has made an impressive recovery over the past 40 years. Keystone / Arno Balzarini

The Valais cantonal authorities have opened a criminal complaint for suspected poaching after a lynx, a protected species in Switzerland, discovered near Crans Montana last year was reported to have been shot dead.

A walker discovered the dead lynx last October near the Rho River in the Crans-Montana region. Its decomposing body was transferred to the Institute of Animal Pathology at the University of Bern, where an autopsy was carried out.

A report, released in December, revealed “the presence of bullet fragments whose location and extent suggest a direct link with the animal’s death”, the canton said in a statementExternal link on Friday.

The lynx is a strictly protected species in Switzerland and poaching it is a hunting offence.

In the statement, the Valais hunting, fishing and wildlife service (SCPF) and the department of security strongly condemned such acts and reiterated that they are actively combating the poaching of all protected species, including the lynx.

The cantonal service had already filed a criminal complaint against an unknown person in November 2021 for the alleged poaching of a lynx in Vernayaz, canton Valais. The animal had been found dead on the A9 motorway after a collision with a vehicle but had been shot first.

Return of the lynx

Formerly extinct in Switzerland, the Swiss lynx population has made an impressive recovery over the past 40 years. The current population is estimated at about 250 animals – consisting of two main populations – one in the north-western Swiss Alps and the other in the Jura mountains. 

It is believed the last lynx in the original Swiss Alps population was killed in 1894 after it was hunted into extinction. A reintroduction programme was launched 50 years ago to bring the lynx back to Switzerland.

At least 14 lynx were transferred in the 1970s from the Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe to the Swiss Alps, making Switzerland one of the first European countries to endorse a re-introduction of the species, as well as grant it legal protection.