Swiss cantons allowed to shoot beavers under specific conditions

Keystone/Christian Beutler

The Swiss federal government has updated the Hunting Ordinance to include provisions for regulating beaver populations. While nature conservation organisations are outraged, the government argues the changes are necessary in specific circumstances.

Starting February 1, Swiss cantons will be permitted to shoot individual beavers if they cause significant damage or pose a danger to people. For instance, this could apply if beaver activity causes streams to overflow, flooding nearby meadows or buildings.

Unlike recent controversial debates about wolf culling, the beaver regulations have attracted less public attention. However, the new rules have sparked criticism from groups such as Pro Natura, WWF Switzerland, and BirdLife, who argue they are overly vague and lack clear thresholds for what constitutes “considerable damage.” Raffael Ayé, managing director of BirdLife, fears this vagueness could lead to arbitrary shootings.

The new regulations for beavers

From February, individual beavers can be shot if they cause considerable damage or endanger people. This only applies after damage and danger could not be prevented by other measures. The federal government and cantons also contribute more to the costs in the event of damage.

Beavers remain protected animals. However, this protection is not absolute. For over 30 years, all wild animals can be killed under certain conditions. Until now, however, this has never been necessary. For this reason, the federal beaver expert centre does not expect beavers to be shot even with the new rules.

Petition to protect beavers

In response, several conservation and animal protection organisations have launched a petition titled “Save the Beaver.” They urge cantons to maintain their existing, cautious approach to managing beaver activity and to disregard the new regulations entirely.

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Ayé also questions the legality of the new rules, arguing that an ordinance cannot simply override the Hunting Act. He highlights that alternative measures, such as protective barriers, have been effectively employed to manage beaver-related issues. Despite current allowances to shoot beavers under certain conditions, no cases of this have been reported to date.

Advantages and disadvantages of beavers

Many people enjoy the cute rodents, but land and forest owners less so. This is because beavers like to gnaw on trees and eat branches. They can also dam up streams and undermine flood defence dams until the water overflows and floods meadows or houses. But the beaver is also a very useful animal.

According to a research project by the environment ministry, the beaver contributes greatly to biodiversity. As a tireless creator, it has created an ecosystem in the Marthalen municipality, in canton Zurich, for example, to which dragonflies, amphibians, fish and aquatic plants have returned. Beaver expert Christof Angst calls beavers “the best promoters of biodiversity”.

It is also the largest rodent in Europe, and a beaver can grow heavier than a deer. Beavers were once extinct in Switzerland, but were then successfully reintroduced. Today there are around 5,000 beavers in Switzerland again.

Clearer rules or more risks?

According to Christof Angst, head of the federal beaver centre, the updated rules are not a licence for indiscriminate shooting. “No one can just grab a shotgun and shoot beavers,” he insists. Instead, the regulations aim to establish clear criteria for intervention, avoiding a “Wild West” scenario.

Keystone/Severin Bigler

The changes align with the Hunting Act, offering more specific guidelines under an additional ordinance. Unlike the wolf regulations, the aim is not to reduce Switzerland’s beaver population, which currently stands at around 5,000 animals.

Impact on beaver families

Cantons may only intervene when beavers cause significant damage, but complications arise because beavers live in family groups. If all members of a family are involved in causing damage, the entire group could face culling.

While the government asserts the rules provide much-needed clarity, conservation groups maintain that they are both unnecessary and dangerous, posing a risk to Switzerland’s beaver population.

Translated from German using DeepL/amva