Select a Location

Switzerland at a glance

There are thought to be approximately 30-35 wolves in Switzerland, with a well-established pack in the Calanda region that has been producing pups each year.  Wolves have been sighted in 17 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons.

This website, theculturetrip.com, provides this summary of wolves in Switzerland:

“Just over 100 years ago the last wolf in Switzerland was killed after an extensive, and mercilessly successful, campaign to eradicate them across Central Europe. This campaign was based on a common belief that the wolf is a bloodthirsty killer that poses a threat to man and their livestock. Between the 1930s and 1960s, the population in the Alps shrunk to its lowest point where only a few isolated populations survived.
“But just over twenty years ago in 1995, a single male wolf wandered across the Swiss-Italian border into the canton of Valais. One year later it is said to have been hunted and killed.

“Under the protection of the law, which marks the wolf as a protected species and allows them to be killed only with permission of the state, the wolf has been able to gain ground and establish a presence. More wolves began to return over the following years and the first pack in over a century and a half was recorded in 2012 near Chur. A second pack was recorded in Ticino three years later. Today there are said to be between 30-35 wolves in Switzerland.”

Species Information

Species
Common Name: gray wolf
Latin Name: Canis lupus

Subspecies
Common Name:
Latin Name: Canis lupus lupus

Current Wolf Population, Trend, Status
Number of wolves: 60 to 70
Population trend: Growing
Legal protection: Under federal protection, unless an animal kills over 20 sheep in a single month, or if it loses its fear of humans.  Because of depredations on livestock, wolves are illegally killed.

This page was last updated in 2020.

More Information

Press coverage and other links

Research

Recent media coverage